May 23 — Film Screening, Wright Hall, Main Theatre

Teknolust (2022, 82 min.) and Logics Paralyzes the Heart (2021, 13 min.)
4-7 p.m.

Tilda Swinton stars in the feature film, Teknolust, as a geneticist who creates a formula allowing her to place her DNA into her own cyborg creations. A 61-year-old cyborg narrates the short film, Logic Paralyzes the Heart, and discusses the body’s integration into digital and military-based systems of control. Hershman Leeson wrote, produced, and directed Teknolust while working in the UC Davis Department of Art and Art History. The screenings are followed by a Q&A with the artist.

May 24 – Film Screening, Wright Hall, Main Theatre

In Electronic Diaries, Hershman Leeson asks, “Where does performance begin and ordinary life give way? Or is all of life a performance?” The feature film chronicles the artist’s life as she speaks into the camera about trauma, anxieties, and obsessions. The Electronic Diaries was
officially selected by Sundance Film Festival as part of the 2020 New Frontier exhibition. The short film, Shadow Stalker, critiques techno-utopian belief in the benevolence of AI systems by articulating the problematic implications of employing them in the social sphere. Shadow
Stalker was the winner of a 2020 Prix Ars Electronica Award of Distinction. The screenings are followed by a Q&A with the artist.

Teknolust is rated R for sexual content and nudity. Films may contains sensitive content, including trauma, hunger and body dysmorphia, divorce, and childhood physical and sexual abuse. 

Both screening are organized by The Manetti Shrem California Studio in the Department of Art and Art History.