Ian Cheng: Forking at Perfection

by Ian Cheng (Editor), Raphael Gygax (Editor), Franziska Bigger (Editor)

The work of New York–based artist Ian Cheng (born 1984) explores the nature of mutation and the capacity of humans to relate to change. Drawing on video game design, improvisation and themes of Darwinian brutality, Cheng has developed so-called “live simulations,” living virtual ecosystems that begin with basic programmed properties, but are left to self-evolve without authorial control or end. Cheng’s simulations often model the dynamics of fictional or imagined organisms and ecologies, but they do so with the unforgiving causality found in nature itself. Cheng describes his simulations as akin to a “neurological gym”: a format for viewers to deliberately exercise the feelings of confusion, anxiety and cognitive dissonance that accompany the experience of unrelenting change. This monograph explores Cheng’s most recent “live simulations,” with contributions from Raphael Gygax and Franziska Bigger, along with a selection of texts by the artist.

Genres: Art

140 pages, Hardcover

Published September 27, 2016

Reviews

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was incredibly well put together. The art is extremely stylish, and has a great deal of philosophical depth (though the latter could be ignored without lessening enjoyment of the pure aesthetics of the visuals, I suspect). The contributed essays and particularly the writings selected by the artist add so much more to the experience of the visual works, though (even in static print form). I picked this up initially for the art style, saw some references to Jaynes in the essays and was intrigued enough to buy it, and was not disappointed in any way whatsoever.

[Effet Moire · Rating 1 out of 5]

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