Generative Art Timeline · Chapter 5: Artist-Programmer Era (1970s)
1979
Lorna, Lynn Hershman Leeson

The artist describes Lorna, made from 1979 to 1984, as the first artwork to use laserdisc technology, and as an early interactive video art disc. Exploiting the interactive capabilities of the medium, the artist enables users to explore and intervene in the world of an agoraphobic woman named Lorna.”
The work highlights the continued importance of interactivity in digital art with roots to cybernetics. Lorna stands as an important example of early digital mass media art, consisting of artists releasing work on digital media that could be distributed easily around the world. According to Casey Reas, the rise of digital mass media is one of the pre-conditions for NFTs.
Maya Man mentioned the impact of Leeson on her work to Le Random.
Text by Peter Bauman. Generative Art Timeline, Le Random.
Sources
People
Casey Reas, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Maya Man
Movements
digital art, video art
Filed under
- Ideas
- digital art, Interactive Art, interactivity, Mass Media Art, video art
- Technologies
- cybernetics, LaserDisc, NFTs
- People
- Casey Reas, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Maya Man
- Works
- Lorna
Related moments
Echoes across time
- 2009 · A Philosophy of Computer Art by Dominic Lopes
- 1993 · Virtual Reality: An Emerging Medium, held at the Guggenheim Museum
- 1995 · jodi.org by JODI
Le Random editorials
- Maya Man on Generative Meaning, Peter Bauman, September 13, 2023
- Casey Reas, Lauren Lee McCarthy & Chandler McWilliams on Expanding Software, Peter Bauman, August 20, 2024
- Casey Reas on the History of Generative Art - Part 2, Peter Bauman, July 5, 2023
- Casey Reas on the History of Generative Art - Part 1, Peter Bauman, June 22, 2023
Le Random podcast
- Maya Man & Ann Hirsch—Ironic Sincerity and Online Gender Performativity Extremes with Peter Bauman — listen with transcript on Le Random (14 Nov 2025, 48 min). Featuring Maya Man. Apple Podcasts · Spotify
- Elevating the Generative Art Space (Launch Episode) with Casey Reas, ciphrd, Anne Spalter, Anika Meier & Georg Bak — listen with transcript on Le Random (28 Jun 2023, 52 min). Featuring Casey Reas. Apple Podcasts · Spotify
- Timeline Ch 8—Tooling Era (2000s) with Christiane Paul, Casey Reas, Christa Sommerer & Golan Levin — listen with transcript on Le Random (15 May 2024, 64 min). Featuring Casey Reas. Apple Podcasts · Spotify
- Timeline Ch 5—Artist-Programmer Era (1970s) with Joan Truckenbrod, Hans Dehlinger & Anika Meier — listen with transcript on Le Random (14 Jan 2024, 65 min). Chapter 5’s episode. Apple Podcasts · Spotify