Uncanny Observers: The Inescapable Gaze of The Dollie Clones by Line Ajan

Uncanny Observers: The Inescapable Gaze of The Dollie Clones by Line Ajan

Excerpt

In the 1990s, Lynn Hershman Leeson created Tillie and CybeRoberta, two telerobotic dolls that blur the lines between innocence and surveillance. Resembling American Girl dolls, these figures are equipped with hidden cameras and web-connected interfaces, allowing viewers to control their movements and gaze. With a deceptively cute exterior, the dolls function as interactive watchtowers, turning the viewer into both observer and observed. This shift creates an eerie power dynamic, where the viewer’s agency is constantly at risk of being overtaken by others. The Dollie Clones reveal the unsettling truth about our relationship with technology: we are both surveilled and complicit in the act of watching…