Installation view of Ian Cheng, curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, until 30 August 2015
Ian Cheng wants his avatars to sing. “I’ve given them 50 syllables to play with, and they’re tonal. I really hope they come up with a tune,” the 31-year old, LA born artist laughs. The first part of Cheng’s three part ‘virtual ecosystem’ “Emissary in the Squat of Gods” is a two-channel work, consisting of two interlacing stories: one of an ancient, pre-conscious society facing an existential threat, and the other of an emissary of this society and his quest to develop consciousness – a macro view of the larger story. “It’s a work between a videogame and a smart story”, the artist said.“I’m interested in the computer as metaphor for an organism, not as a mere calculator.”
The characters have needs-based AI and can communicate basic desires, such as thirst to each other. Cheng tells Sleek that it is ‘very basic AI’: nevertheless, the work required the input of six programmers. Watching the live-stream of the simulation, it is apparent that the story is at its very beginning: the characters stumble into each other, and roam around the dystopic landscape of their home in a random fashion. Runic glyphs form ciphers in the ambiguity-laden landscape. Cheng’s debt to the Japanese anime studio, Studio Ghibli, is clear in his visual language. “I like the moral ambiguity of Hayao Miyazaki’s characters, there is no good/bad binary in his stories, it’s more about the overall ecological condition.” There is no structured narration, so the story derives from the interaction of the characters. New elements are introduced at random, and the work iterates, becoming increasingly complex the longer the programme runs. His hope is that complex behaviours will emerge from simple interactions.
Installation view of Ian Cheng, curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, until 30 August 2015
Curator Hans Ulrich Obrist commented that the films act as ‘studies’, and that consciousness emerges as social rather than biological phenomenon through the series of Cheng’s films. “I’m interested in composing with behaviours, in order to understand the non-human. Can consciousness exist without a human body?” the artist notes. Visitors at the beginning and the end of the exhibition will see a different artwork, expanding concepts of both narrative and medium.
Text by Jeni Fulton
Ian Cheng, curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, is at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, 23 April – 11 October 2015. www.fsrr.org
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