Agent Ruby (1998–2002)

In 2002, Lynn Hershman Leeson presented the online project »Agent Ruby« , a Web application that communicates with its users via chatting, Ruby takes her name from one of the characters in Hershman Leeson’s film »Teknolust« (2002) and as such continues on the series of fictional female characters in the artist’s work. Visitors encounter a Website through which they can contact Ruby – the suggestion of a female face that winks and moves its eyes and lips. Even from the first encounter with Agent Ruby it is obvious that Hershman Leeson is using the innovative technology to examine that which was always the focal point of her artistic practice, namely identity and interaction.

The piece in the exhibition »Civic Radar« addresses the possibility of communication between virtual beings and real users, but at the same time also demonstrates the limits of the new technologies: Ruby often answers that she requires a better algorithm to respond to the question posed. Alongside the web agent, Hershman Leeson provides excerpts from the extensive archive material on the conversations Ruby has had with her users over the past twelve years. Between analog and digital presentation, Agent Ruby generates a dynamic relationship between human and computer, the real and virtual space, the fictionality of cyberspace and the human need for communication.