Life? (Life to the power of n)—or, life to the power of infinity is a series of exhibitions highlighting the work of Lynn Hershman Leeson that will take place throughout the Bay Area in 2008. Internationally recognized as one of the most influential among San Francisco–based media artists, Hershman Leeson has shaped the history of contemporary art in the Bay Area since the early 1970s.

This collaborative survey of the artist’s past and current projects is a joint effort among local institutions and art collections; it will feature six presentations over the course of the year (see calendar below), individually organized by each participating venue but jointly promoted under the title of Life? (Life to the power of n).

Life? (Life to the power of n) was initiated by SFMOMA and coordinated by Rudolf Frieling, the museum’s curator of media arts. The project is jointly organized by the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, the de Young Museum, The Hess Collection, New Langton Arts, SFMOMA, and 01SJ A Global Festival of Art on the Edge at the San Jose Museum of Art.

Common denominators among the individual presentations are the artist’s reconfiguration of historic and archival material, as well as her incorporation of user participation through new online platforms such as Second Life. Life? (Life to the power of n) proposes that there is not just one “real life” and one “virtual life,” but potentially endless manifestations of life and art that combine and mutate into hybrid forms of exhibition display, performance, online communities, interactive interfaces, user-generated content, and public screenings.

As they become available, exhibition materials from each project in Life? (Life to the power of n) will be digitally relocated to a site in Second Life (URL to be announced), which will eventually become the content and record for a “meta-archive,” facilitating deeper analysis, active investigation, and social exploration of the work. Updates on the project and Second Life access information will be posted at www.life-n.net. More information about Hershman Leeson can be found at the artist’s website: www.lynnhershman.com.

In conjunction with Life? (Life to the power of n), a new monograph on the work of Hershman Leeson will be co-published by Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, and bitforms gallery, New York, in partnership with The Hess Collection (release date and details to be announced).