Ian Cheng

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Ian Cheng is an American artist working with "live simulation" installations.


FOCUS
"Cheng makes what he calls “live simulations,” and each one, he says, is something like “a video game that plays itself.” He doesn’t know what will happen in his works because they are infinitely mutating, never finished, and quite literally evolving. Describing Cheng’s simulations can be a challenge. The characters in them look like computerized versions of real-life animals and humans, but, because Cheng is working with a video-game engine that keeps creating new combinations, the figures can smash into each other and break into overlapping geometric planes. Though what the work will do is left up to chance, Cheng has a narrative in mind before he starts working, and his works loosely follow it."
SOURCE: Art News

The Emissary trilogy: "The works are comprised of computer-generated simulations like those used in predictive technologies for complex scenarios such as climate change or elections. Populated by a cast of characters and wildlife that interact, intervene, and recombine in open-ended narratives, Cheng’s simulations evolve endlessly as self-contained ecosystems. ... this series of works, which contemplate timeless questions about evolution, the origins of human consciousness, and ways of relating to a chaotic existence."
SOURCE: MOMA


NOTABLE WORKS
Emissary in the squat of gods (2015)
Entropy Wrangler (2013)


ARTIST PAGE
http://iancheng.com