JM:

Let's start with a very basic question  why did you make "Synthetic Pleasures"?

IL:

I read about the indoor beach and indoor ski resorts in Japan, and I was so impressed with the idea of controlling the environment to that degree, that I went to Japan and shot some footage.  I decided to make a short film on controlled environments, but when I was in New York, I realised the subject was so interesting and so vast  not only do we have this idea of controlling the environment, but also controlling the body and the mind, through technology.  And that kind of just escalated and snowballed, and all of a sudden I had two hundred hours of footage.

I interviewed people who had experimented with plastic surgery to control the body, people who take smart drugs, to enhance the brain and the mind, and I basically divided the film into three chapters: how we use technology to control the environment, body and mind, and the philosophical and ethical issues that this kind of manipulation brings about.

JM:

One of the things that struck me about the film is the fact that we're terrified by nature so we have to have power over it, and this synthetic world we're creating will enable us to do that.  People go to a beach where there's no chance of jelly-fish, no chance of bad weather.  Can you comment on that?

IL:

This desire to control nature is not new, but I think technology is just enhancing this desire, and aggravates the situation.  I think it will always be this battle between human endeavour and nature.  The think about the film is that it gets to a point that your values and all the established ideas you had - it's all up for grabs.  What is natural and what is synthetic nowadays?  What is reality and what is virtual reality?  We are at the end of the millennium, and all these concepts are up for grabs.  And that's one of the issues we had in the movie.  We always wanted to dominate nature, and technology just gives us this fantasy that it's possible.  But a lot of moral and ethical questions are raised and if we can push the boundary, and if we can control, we will.  Where do we stop?  That's an intrinsic thing about the film.  It raises the question - where do we stop?  Because we do have a lot of power.  Maybe more power than we can handle.

JM:

What do you think?  What should be the limit?

IL:

I think it would be a little pretentious for me to say that I have the answer.  I think what is important about the film is that it raises questions.  I think technology is two extremes - good and bad.  In a very extremist way, you could say, "oh, there's too much technology, too much control over nature," but on the other hand, you could say, "there's not enough technology!"  I've just flown from New York to San Francisco, and I was sitting next to this engineer, and said ne needed more technology, faster computers, to do the calculations he was working on.  But I guess it's just a question of having a modicum of humility.  One has to be humble, and realise that we have all this power, but we have to be careful about it.  Look at the cold war - you could press a button, and that's it.  I think the most important thing about the film is that it raises questions.  It makes people think about these things.  At some point in the past there was this attitude of "oh, yeah, leave it to the experts", but I think we've reached a point where we've realised that we all have to be a part of the decision, and we all have to be very ethical and moral about these issues.

JM:

Kim Polese of Marimba said that the Internet is going to be to the 21st century what electricity was to the 20th.  Do you agree?

IL:

It's almost overpowering, but if you don't have a computer, how can you get things done?  We're so multi-tasked - it's no longer simple levels - you're always doing three, four, parallel things at the same time, and I think you will get to the stage where you don't need to go out, or to go shopping, and everything is inter-connected.  I can't imagine what it was like before I didn't have my office in a network where all the computers talk to each other, and now even further, when I'm travelling all over the world, interviewing people, I can still be connected to my hub in the office in New York.   So the Internet will be the electricity of the 21st century - yes.

JM:

In what ways?

IL:

I don't know on what level you read the film, but it's very interesting that, a lot of times, people watch the movie and they think, "oh, the director really embraces technology, she thinks it's wonderful," and right away another person comes and comments, "Oh, you really made this depressing movie, it really shows how terrible things are!".  So, what is interesting about the film is that its' very multilayered.  You can read it on the surface, or you can read it deeper.  The film shows the beauty, in a very plastic way, of the indoor beach, but deep inside, you can see that I'm very judgmental as well.  But it's not bashing you over the head.  The judgement is not so up-front.  It has many layers, all the criticism.  It's beautiful, but at the same time, it's very sad.

JM:

Actually, when I was watching the film, the question I came away with was, "what do you think after making that film, interviewing all those people, seeing all these things?"  Did it make you more pro or anti technology?

IL:

You see, it's a mixture of both.  Technology is this constant love/hate relationship.  It enhances my imagination, it enables me to do amazing things, but at the same time, it bogs you down.  It's not always moving forward.  Sometimes it's two steps forward, three steps back.  It's good that the film confuses people and it's good that it makes people think, because there isn't one answer.

JM:

How would you say digital access is changing society?

IL:

I think technology gives us this fantasy that you can have instant gratification, but I think it is exactly that - a fantasy.  There is no short cut.  One day you lose all your information on your hard drive, and you realise that you were trusting your computer too much!  And I think that happens to a lot of people.

JM:

Yeah- that happened to me!  What do you think about the new hand-held web-access devices?  Will we get to the point where everybody's going to have one?  Or maybe we're even going to have a chip implanted on our wrist that has our ATM card details on it.  We're heading in that direction.  What's life going to be like when we get there?

IL:

Life in the future - I don't know whether it's going to be better or worse - it's just going to be different.  People react to the idea of implants, or going to the store to replace an organ that was damaged in your body, but it's just a natural evolution.  I think it's just going to be different.  It's not going to be better or worse. 

JM:

Do you think there will come a day when what we consider a vacation will be getting away from technology?

IL:

I think it's already that way.  Most of our activities are computerised.  When you're editing a movie, you're in front of the Avid system; musicians nowadays make music through the computer.  The most activity you have is moving the mouse!  What is vacation?  Vacation is to go away from the computer!

JM: