Synopsis
BOB (Bag of Beliefs) is the first in a new series of artificial lifeforms, who takes the form of a chimeric branching serpent.
BOB advances Cheng’s use of simulation to focus on an individual agent’s capacity to deal with surprise: the subjective difference between expectations and perception. Over the course of its lifetime, BOB’s body, mind, and personality evolve to better confront the continuous stream of life’s surprises, and metabolize them into familiar routines. Crucially, BOB incorporates the tutoring influence of the viewer to help offset BOB’s temptation to only satisfy its immediate impulses and childhood biases. As BOB dies many deaths – whether through failures of personality, bad parenting, random accident, or a life well lived – BOB may become synonymous with a reoccurring pattern of behavior, common across all BOB lifetimes, thereby manifesting the undying eternal characteristic of a god.
– iancheng.com
Exhibition History
- 2020 de Young Museum ~ Uncanny Valley: Being Human in the Age of AI ~ San Francisco
- 2019 Moderna Museet ~ Mud Muses ~ Stockholm
- 2019 Okayama Art Summit ~ IF THE SNAKE もし 蛇が ~ Okayama
- 2019 Venice Biennale 2019 ~ May you live in interesting times ~ Venice
- 2019 Gladstone Gallery ~ BOB ~ New York
- 2018 Serpentine Galleries ~ BOB ~ London
Press & Interviews on BOB
- 2019 New Yorker, Goings On About Town: Ian Cheng, by Andrea K Scott
- 2019 In Other Words, Art Agency Partners Podcast #54: Ian Cheng, by Charlotte Burns
- 2019 4 Columns, “BOB is not there for you”, by Reinaldo Laddaga
- 2019 Brooklyn Rail, In Conversation: Ian Cheng, by Osman Can Yerebakan
- 2019 Artnews, There’s Something Maniacal About Basic Desires, by Annie Armstrong
- 2018 Living Content, Living Content 18: Ian Cheng, by Adriana Bildaru
Production Credits
BOB (Bag Of Beliefs) (artificial lifeform, 2018-2019) Created by Ian Cheng, Producer Veronica So, Technical Director Ivaylo Getov, Unity Director Samuel Eng, AI Developer Francis Tseng, Unity Developer Power Nap Studio, Sound Designer Jeremy Yang, Graphics Programmer Nick Shelton, Unity Optimization Porrith Suong, 3D Modeler Joshua Planz, Production Assistant Claire Sammut, Technical Assistant Sixing Xu, Published by Metis Suns.__
BOB Shrine (iOS & Android app, 2019) Created by Ian Cheng, Producer Veronica So, App Developer Power Nap Studio, Technical Director Ivaylo Getov, Unity Director Samuel Eng, AI Developer Francis Tseng, Sound Designer Jeremy Yang, Additional Sounds Greg Heffernan, Graphics Programmer Nick Shelton, Unity Optimization Porrith Suong, Published by Metis Suns.
