Ian Cheng – Luxurious Art of Simulation
Ian Cheng
Ian Cheng comes from Los Angeles, but he now lives in New York. In 2009 he concluded his studies of cognitive science at Columbia University, and then devoted himself to digital technologies. He was enchanted by animation as an incredible field of expression. Thanks to his scientific skills and interest in the field, he approaches animation as a medium and examines the abilities of human perception and behaviour. His work has been presented for instance at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Hirshhorn Museum, Migros Museum, MoMA PS1 and many more.
What makes him exceptional
His work features a characteristic elements, that being the disruption of causality. He works with it and tests when the viewer is capable of connecting seemingly random action without reaction, or reaction without action. He uses the luxurious “motion-capture” technology, deliberately deforming obtained data, where instead of transferring the perfect movements of actors, he brings a chaotic tangle of movements into a virtual space. He also experiments with other possible technologies related to transferring information from the real world into the virtual one. For instance, he randomly shifts events forwards and backwards along a time axis, and works in the same way with objects in space.
Luxury simulations
Cheng promotes the idea of artistic form as “live simulation”. Unlike other art forms engaged in live simulation, Cheng builds on the endless duration and composition of algorithmically generated content, which together produces a certain impression.
“Simulations were brought to realisation with the assumed aim of explaining the path of light or proving unknown facts, in order to allow work with various systems and their randomness. But Cheng’s live simulation differs in its aim, the purpose of which is to elevate your emotions, which you cannot influence,” says Ben Vickers, head of digitalisation at Serpentine Galleries.
