Ian Cheng at MOMA
Ian Cheng, who is a part of BCNM's ATC speaker series, spoke to CALIFORNIA Magazine about his current exhibit at MoMA PS 1. Drawing from his background as a cognitive science and art practice major at UC Berkeley, he created a computer program that crafts a simulated universe, illustrating three different narratives of civilization. However, as the characters in the simulation continue to interact with one another, they can often go beyond the scope of Cheng's predictions.
"'It never repeats itself,' said Cheng of his work. 'So long as you have electricity plugged in, this piece will continue to run and mutate and change over time.'"
During his time at UC Berkeley, Cheng credits three art professors as his mentors — one of whom was Greg Niemeyer, former BCNM director and current BCNM faculty member.
Read the rest of the CALIFORNIA Magazine article here.
Interested in how Ian Cheng crafts digital worlds through his art? Join us May 9, 2018 for our Art, Technology, and Culture Colloquium series and attend his talk: new art, flag art, good art, portal art.
About the Art, Technology, and Culture Colloquium
Berkeley’s Art, Technology, and Culture Colloquium is an internationally recognized forum for presenting new ideas that challenge conventional wisdom about art, technology, and culture. This series, free of charge and open to the public, presents artists, writers, curators, and scholars who consider contemporary issues at the intersection of aesthetic expression, emerging technologies, and cultural history, from a critical perspective.
ALL SEATS ARE AVAILABLE ON A FIRST-COME, FIRST-SERVED BASIS
This year, we are excited to present new art, flag art, good art, portal art with Ian Cheng as part of the following series:
Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.”
― Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities
2017
09/25 World Without Mind: The Existential Threat of Big Tech
Frank Foer, Journalist, New York
In partnership with the Graduate School of Journalism
10/23 Socially Engaged Internet-Art: Aesthetics of Information Ethics
Paolo Cirio, Artist, New York
In partnership with the Department of Art Practice
11/6 We must conjure our Gods before we obey them
Michael Rock, Designer, 2X4, New York
In partnership with the Department of Architecture & Urban Planning
2018
01/29 Indexical Ambivalence
Kris Paulsen, Associate Professor, The Ohio State University, Ohio
In partnership with the History and Theory of New Media Lecture Series
02/05 Connectivity as Human Right
Nicholas Negroponte, Architect, MIT, Massachussetts
In partnership with the Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation
03/19 Yugoexport Is the Name of this Oral Corporation
Irena Haiduk, Artist, Belgrade, Serbia
In partnership with the Wiesenfeld Visiting Artist Lecture Series
04/09 new art, flag art, good art, portal art
Ian Cheng, Artist, Los Angeles
In partnership with the Wiesenfeld Visiting Artist Lecture Series
04/16 Regents Lecture 2018
Angela Davis, activist & scholar, UC Santa Cruz