Thirty-five years on, Lynn Hershman Leeson's groundbreaking video work remains strikingly relevant
Lynn Hershman Leeson's seminal video work, Desire Inc. (1990), offers a prescient exploration of the construction of desire, agency, and voyeurism through media and advertising in the late-broadcast, pre-digital era. Originally aired as a late-night television piece without context, the work remains as relevant as ever, thirty-five years after its creation.
Desire Inc. is a critical examination of themes that would become central to the digital age, such as the commodification of intimacy, participatory media, and the collapse of public/private boundaries. The piece, which continues to be shown and appreciated, anticipates how identities today are increasingly mediated through networked, interactive forms of selfhood and self-surveillance.
In the work, an attractive woman directly engages viewers by asking them to call her. This combination of advertisements and viewer responses creates a feedback loop, blurring reality and fiction to intensify the reflection on how advertising manipulates human desire and participation to shape economic and social behavior. Hershman Leeson aimed to capture "things in an ad that people hoped for or were secretly thinking about," highlighting the power of advertising to exploit hidden desires for consumer influence.
Regarding artificial intelligence, Hershman Leeson later engaged with AI as a narrative device, exploring what AI-driven storytelling would look like. This reflects her ongoing interest in how technology mediates and shapes narratives of identity and desire.
Currently on display at Margate's 243 Luz gallery until August 30, Desire Inc. holds historical significance as an early artistic critique of media’s role in shaping personal and consumer identity just before the internet’s rise. The work continues to affect conversations about AI, media, and consumer relationships by highlighting how desire is constructed and commodified in mediated environments.
Lynn Hershman Leeson, the creator of Desire Inc., expresses surprise at the continued showing of her work, believing that subtle or deep work gets buried in the current landscape filled with trivia. Despite this, she is grateful for its continued appreciation. The power of Desire Inc. lies in its ability to resonate deeply even after many years, capturing a poignant moment in time before television conceded its power to the internet.
Lynn Hershman Leeson's exploration of desire, agency, and voyeurism in media and advertising, as depicted in her video work Desire Inc., anticipates not only themes relevant to the digital age, such as the collapse of public/private boundaries and participatory media, but also the way technology, particularly artificial intelligence, could one day mediate and shape narratives of identity and desire.
In her later works, Hershman Leeson further engaged with AI as a narrative device, providing a glimpse into how AI-driven storytelling could look and how it might continue to influence narratives of identity and desire.
