Photo: Lynne Hershman Leeson

Lynn Hershman Leeson has been cited as the “most influential woman working in new media”. She has worked extensively in photography, video, film, performance, installation, and interactive and net-based media.

Her most recent film, Strange Culture, featured at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and Berlin Film Festival, was noted as “a brilliant statement on artistic freedom and the dangers it faces.” The film features Tilda Swinton and other actors dramatizing events that lead to the arrest, on suspicion of bioterrorism, of artist Steve Kurtz, an outspoken critic of genetic modification. Hershman Leeson screened the film simultaneously at the Sundance Festival and in the online virtual world of Second Life.

Hershman Leeson’s pioneering interactive and net-based works include: Deep Contact (1984-89), an interactive videodisc about the relationship of intimacy to technology; America’s Finest (1994-95), a camera/gun that transforms the aggressor/user into a victim of surveillance and capture; and DiNA (2004), an artificial intelligence agent with capacity to develop her memory and knowledge base by interacting with users.

Hershman Leeson has received numerous awards including the prestigious Golden Nica Prix Ars Electronica, the ZKM/Seimens Media Arts Award, the Flintridge Foundation Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Visual Artsand The Alfred P. Sloan Film Prize. Her artwork is in many international collections, including the Museum of Modern Art (New York), The National Gallery of Canada, DG Bank (Frankfurt), and The Hess Collection. She has directed eight feature films. She is an Emeritus Professor of the University of California, Consulting Professor at the Stanford Humanities Lab, and will assume the Chair of the Film Department at the San Francisco Art Institute in Fall 2007.

www.lynnhershman.com
www.strangeculture.net

Screen shot of website from strangeculture.net featuring the new film about the arrest of artist / activist Steve Kurtz. Previous Next Close	A mixed reality simultaneous screening at Sundance and in the online world Second Life during January 2007. Previous Next Close	An artificial intelligence agent with Pulse 3D Veepers, Alicebot and Natural Voices software. Previous Next Close	A camera / gun that transforms the aggressor / user into a victim of surveillance and capture. Previous Next Close	An interactive touch-screen videodisc about the relationship of intimacy to technology, created in collaboration with Sara Roberts. Previous Next Close
Lynne Hershman Leeson Strange Culture, 2007 Photo: courtesy Lynne Hershman Leeson	Lynne Hershman Leeson Strange Culture on Second Life Photo: courtesy Lynne Hershman Leeson	Lynne Hershman Leeson DiNA, 2004 – present Photo: courtesy Lynne Hershman Leeson	Lynne Hershman Leeson America’s Finest, 1994 – 95 Photo: courtesy Lynne Hershman Leeson	Lynne Hershman Leeson Deep Contact, 1984 - 89 Photo: courtesy Lynne Hershman Leeson