Hershman Leeson has been probing new technologies and making works about cyborgs since the 1960s, while also engaging with issues of surveillance, gender, and privacy. She proffers the cyborg as an inevitable outcome of human development in a technologically driven society. Defined as “a fictional or hypothetical person whose physical abilities are extended beyond normal human limitations by mechanical elements built into the body,” cyborgs are antecedents of artificial intelligence. This exhibition presents three of Hershman Leeson’s most recent videos (made in the last five years) that explore the interrelationship between humans, cyborgs, and artificial intelligence. Similarly, in this exhibition Hershman Leeson presents three different techno-female personas, in three related videos—in the last one she introduces her newest alter-ego.
In the first work, Shadow Stalker (2019) Leeson alerts people to the fact that everyone has an online alter ego, created perhaps unwittingly, through the data driven footprints they generate. In Logic Paralyzes the Heart (2021)—the first video to be acquired as part of the Museum’s Altered Landscape Collection—we meet the very first cyborg, played by actress Joan Chen. While on a retreat, she reflects on the past and offers her visions of a troubled future, particularly in relation to climate change. The final, and most recent work, Cyborgian Rhapsody: Immortality (2023), is the follow-up to Logic Paralyzes the Heart. Like in the previous video, she introduces a new cyborg, created with the help of AI, who goes by Sarah and bears a striking resemblance to the artist. Born in the future (2029), Sarah meets two human friends online, after interrupting their social media feeds. In each of these works, Hershman Leeson tells a cautionary tale about the potential misuses and abuses of technology, which has already begun to radically reshape human relationships, societies, and the history of life on Earth.
Supporting Sponsor
Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation
