Ian Cheng
| Ian Cheng | |
|---|---|
| Born |
March 29, 1984 Los Angeles |
| Nationality | American |
| Education |
BA, University of California, Berkeley MFA, Columbia University |
| Occupation | Artist |
| Notable work | Emissary Trilogy Entropy Wrangler |
Ian Cheng (born March 29, 1984) is an American artist known for his live simulations that explore the nature of mutation and human behavior. His simulations, commonly understood as "virtual ecosystems" are less about the wonders of new technologies than about the potential for these tools to realize ways of relating to a chaotic existence. His work has been widely exhibited internationally, including MoMA PS1, Whitney Museum of American Art, Hirshhorn Museum, , , and other institutions.
Cheng was born in Los Angeles, CA, in 1984. Cheng attended Van Nuys High School. Cheng graduated from University of California, Berkeley in 2006 with a dual degree in cognitive science and art practice. Cheng worked at Industrial Light & Magic, George Lucas's visual effects company. Cheng attended Columbia University, where he earned his MFA in 2009.
Cheng worked in the studio of artist Pierre Huyghe from 2010 to 2012.
Cheng coined the art form “live simulations” and popularized the use of simulation as a medium available to artistic practice. Unlike other media-based art forms, live simulations are infinite in duration and composed of both man-made and algorithmically generated content that together produce emergent behavior. Live simulations are a distinct subset of simulations in that they have no purpose of study and are presented in public in real-time as exhibitions, without regard to a fixed outcome or meaning or utility value. Cheng incorporates AI characters into these simulations with goal-oriented behavior, using simulation as a foil to interrogate narrative norms.
In an interview with Gianni Jetzer, Curator-at-large at the Hirshhorn Museum, Cheng said of his work, “To be human is to simulate little micro-slices of reality before jumping to the next simulation. Giving this a form and a name within the context of art is a way to deliberately appreciate and play with this natural fact of filtering reality.”
Ben Vickers, curator of Digital at the Serpentine Galleries wrote of Cheng's work: "Simulations were supposedly engineered into existence with the intention of making sense of the world or seeking some as-yet undiscovered truth, in order to study in confined quarters various systems and their contingencies. But Cheng’s live simulations seem to take on an entirely different intentionality, one that is mindful of the potential for “a sudden pattern of feelings [to] grow inside you, with or without you,” a recognition of interspecies dependence, and a vocabulary of cognitive gestures for coping with an all pervasive global weirding. They conjure a crack through which various thought forms may be capable of escape, infection, or symbiotic grafting with one’s own perception of reality."
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