LY N N H E R S H M A N L E E S O N si g ni f i ca nt co mmi tment
b y W i l l i a m J. Si mm o ns
The best artists are so avant-garde that their work baffles their
Using technology in art is not only for men. Ada Lovelace
contemporaries and requires a new set of interpretational and
wrote the first computer program between 1842 and 1843,
art historical tools in order to make sense of their advance-
but she was not credited for 100 years. Mary Shelley wrote
ments. We are only just now beginning to understand the
the first book referencing artificial intelligence in 1818 with
extraordinary contributions to Minimalism made by Miriam
Frankenstein. Hedy Lamarr invented spread spectrum
Schapiro and Judy Chicago after years of focusing on the ac-
technology, which is the basis for the cellular technology.
complishments of male artists on the East Coast. Lynn Her-
The importance of the innovation in technology that has
shman Leeson, unlike many other artists, seems to welcome
come from women is only being recently acknowledged.
the fact that she was, and continues to be, so tapped into the
My work that uses technology began in the 1960s, first
vanguard that her work from the 1960s onward defies critical
with a mistake on a Xerox machine, which I liked and
articulation. In fact, by requiring us to think with more nuance
kept reproducing. Then I incorporated sound as an exten-
about the role of technology and gender in our formulation of
sion of what I call the Breathing Machines – wax casts that
discourses surrounding photography, performance, film, video,
emit sounds of breathing or giggling when approached by
and sculpture, she has enacted a completely new understand-
the viewer. They can even talk to the viewer. These pieces
ing of postwar art. We can never understand conceptualism in
were not exhibited until last year at my retrospective at
the same way after experiencing Hershman Leeson’s astonish-
Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie (ZKM). Be-
ing excavations of the intellectual and artistic possibilities of
fore that, people said they were not art, because media
changing technologies.
was not art. One piece that talked: Self Portrait as Another
Despite any resistance that she encountered in the art world,
Person (1965) closed down an exhibition at the University
Hershman Leeson has pulled 18-hour days every single day
Art Museum in Berkeley because the curators insisted it
for over 40 years. Aside from her work discussed in this in-
was not art. I like using technologies and innovations of
terview, which are held in prestigious museums and private
the present in my work because it offers more opportu-
collections across the world, Hershman Leeson also premiered
nities than dealing with the past. I wanted to use things
the landmark documentary !Women Art Revolution in 2011.
that were in the process of being invented, rather than
Additionally, she wrote, directed, and produced three other
trying to do things that were already in th e dialogue. It
feature films starring Tilda Swinton that have been screened
progressed systematically from the sound sculptures to
internationally: Conceiving Ada (1997), Teknolust (2002), and
the site-specific works, which had a flowchart for how
Strange Culture (2007). An Emeritus Professor at the Uni-
you navigated them. Time and space, and modularity and
versity of California at Davis and the A.D. White Professor-
video were compressed into Lorna (1983), which is consid-
at-Large at Cornell University, Hershman Leeson was also
ered the first interactive laser-disc artwork.
a recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship, the Alfred P. Sloan
It took 25 years for Lorna to be seen and acknowledged.
Foundation Prize for Writing and Directing. To the benefit of
Once people started thinking about the ramifications of
artists and researchers across the world, the Stanford Univer-
an interactive art videodisc, and what that meant for a
sity library has also acquired her working archives.
fractured narrative, or began considering virtual reality
and placing the viewer inside the art space, then that
In the following, Hershman Leeson discusses the ramifications
just extended into the next work, Deep Contact (1984),
of her historical work as she moves even further into uncharted
that uses a touch screen to allow one to virtually touch a
aesthetic territory.
woman’s body. This invented various adventures. It ref-
Portrait by Andrea Blanch.
19