Conceiving Conceiving Ada:
Director's Statement
When I first learned about Ada Byron King, Countess of Lovelace, I knew instantly I had to make a film about her. Though relatively invisible until recently, this daring and brilliant woman of the Victorian Era has dynamically influenced not only my own life, but the direction of the 20th century.
Sometimes known as "the mother of all programmers," Ada Byron King, Countess of Lovelace, wrote what is now known as the first computer language and predicted its use in music, poetry and art. Born a female original thinker in the Victorian era, Ada's passions and perversions forced her to live a double life. The duality of her existence as mother/visionary, lover/fiercely independent thinker, wife/schemer is acknowledged in the film by weaving a narrative that references the dual strands of the DNA molecule.
CONCEIVING ADA is structured around the idea of a double helix. Cryptically embedded into the story is how DNA strands cause genetic memory to weave through four generations. Each scene was structured and shot using a DNA image as a model.
I felt it important to use the technology Ada pioneered. Virtual sets and digital sound became the vehicle through which her story could be told. They provided environments in which she moves freely through time, becomes liberated and, ultimately, moves into visibility.
Lynn Hershman Leeson
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