Lynn Hershman Leeson

“I’ve been reading a beautiful, succinct memoir by the artist Lynn Hershman Leeson called Private I, and it’s been a really potent reminder about how much harder it was for the women who came before us. Lynn’s story starts in the 1940s in Cleveland, where she grew up in a sexually and physically abusive household. She tried to commit suicide violently, by driving her mother’s car into a wall, prompting a police mandate that she attend therapy. Her psychiatrist—whose office was next to the Cleveland Museum—confirmed for Lynn that her trauma-induced ability to read a room allowed her to spot developing cultural trends and innovations in technology, particularly in regards to online identity, privacy, the surveillance state, and AI…”