Lynn Hershman Leeson

When Art Becomes Responsibility: Interview with Artist Lynn Hershman Leeson

Excerpt

There are artists who “look ahead”, and artists who place the future in our hands. Lynn Hershman Leeson belongs to the latter; she doesn’t prophesy, she assumes responsibility. From pioneering actions in the 1960s to works such as Roberta Breitmore, Lorna, the Electronic Diaries, and The Infinity Engine, her practice has continuously interrogated identity, technology, and power. Freedom, in her work, isn’t a prize; it’s a skill to train, a technique of bodies, data, and institutions. If one day AI were to imitate us better than we imitate ourselves, what would remain human is the refusal to delegate courage. As long as we can switch off the machine and light up a room of witnesses, this responsibility has a name: art…