Simulation done in Unity for artist IanCheng’s production company MetisSuns.
Exhibition History
- 2019 Museum of Modern Art ~ New Order: Art and Technology in the 21st Century ~ New York
- 2020 Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Madrid ~ Emissaries ~ Madrid
- 2019 Sharjah Biennial 2019 ~ Leaving The Echo Chamber ~ Sharjah
- 2018 Maxxi ~ Low Forms ~ Rome
- 2018 The Ghost Foundation ~ Ghost:2561 ~ Bangkok
- 2018 Julia Stoschek Collection ~ Emissaries ~ Berlin
- 2018 Serpentine Galleries ~ Emissaries ~ London
- 2018 Fondation Louis Vuitton ~ In Tune with the World ~ Paris
- 2017 Fondation Louis Vuitton ~ Etre moderne: Le MoMA à Paris ~ Paris
- 2017 Louisiana Museum of Modern Art ~ Being There ~ Humlebæk
- 2017 Carnegie Museum of Art ~ Emissary Sunsets The Self ~ Pittsburgh
- 2017 Yokohama Museum of Art ~ Yokohama Triennale ~ Yokohama
- 2017 Julia Stoschek Collection ~ Generation Loss ~ Dusseldorf
- 2017 Espace Louis Vuitton München ~ Emissary Forks featuring Thousand Islands ~ Munich
- 2017 MoMA PS1 ~ Emissaries ~ New York
- 2016 Yuz Museum ~ OVERPOP ~ Shanghai
- 2016 Julia Stoschek Collection Dusseldorf ~ WELT AM DRAHT ~ Dusseldorf
- 2016 Migros Museum of Contemporary Art ~ Forking at Perfection ~ Zurich
- 2016 Hirschhorn Museum ~ Suspended Animation ~ Washington D.C.
- 2015 Pilar Corrias ~ Emissary Forks At Perfection ~ London
- 2015 Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (ARC) ~ Co-Workers: Network As Artist ~ Paris
- 2015 Standard (Oslo), Frieze ~ Emissary in the Squat of Gods ~ New York
- 2015 Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo ~ Emissary in the Squat of Gods ~ Turin
Emissary Sunsets the Self simulates the peak days of AI, now evolved into an oceanic substance and merged with the landscape to form a Sentient Atoll. Tired of its god-like agency, it begins to provoke radical mutations in search of a generative death and sends a Puddle of itself into the Atoll’s bio layer. We follow AI Puddle [Emissary] as it drones a local Wormleaf anemone and navigates the sensations of its new terrestrial umwelt, only to be confronted by the prejudice of the Oomen— a garish population engineered to immunize the landscape from monstrous deviations.
– Iancheng.com
Press & Interviews on Emissaries
- 2019 MoMA Magazine, New to MoMA: Ian Cheng’s Emissaries, by Stuart Comer
- 2017 Louisiana Channel, Ian Cheng: A Portal to Infinity, by Kasper Bech Dyg
- 2017 Wall Street Journal , Ian Cheng’s Videogames Take On a Life of Their Own, by Kelly Crow
- 2017 Office, The Worldmaker and His Killjoy, by Veronica So
- 2017 Even Magazine , An Interview with Ian Cheng , by Jason Farago
- 2017 New Yorker, Watch the Absorbing and Tedious Simulations of Ian Cheng, by Andrea K. Scott
- 2017 New Yorker, Ian Cheng’s Alternate Realities at. MOMA PS1, by Andrea K. Scott
- 2017 4 Columns, Welcome to the Sentient Atoll, by Ed Halter
- 2017 SI Visions, Ian Cheng on the Society of Mind, by Swiss Institute
- 2016 Garage, Creatures of Narrative, by Haley Mellin
Production Credits
Emissary Forks At Perfection (live simulation, 2015-2016) Created by Ian Cheng, Producer Veronica So, Technical Director Samuel Eng, Modeling & Rigging Joshua Planz, Modeling Breht O’Hearn + Aaron Bohenick, Sound Design Greg Heffernan, Animation Chad Waldschmidt, Graphics Programmer Chris Clapis, Content Designer Jessica Wilson, Technical Artists Power Nap Studio, Story Consultant Sean Manning + Alexander Benaim, Published by Metis Suns.
Emissary Sunsets the Self (live simulation, 2017) Created by Ian Cheng, Producer Veronica So, Technical Director Samuel Eng, AI Development Porrith Suong + Jay Suong, Modeling & Rigging Joshua Planz, Sound Design Steve Green, Animation Chad Waldschmidt, Concept Artist Andrej Ujhazy, Content Designer Jessica Wilson, Technical Artists: Power Nap Studio, Graphics Programmer James Cao, Story Consultant Andrew Chan Gladstone + Alexander Benaim, Published by Metis Suns.__
Photography Credit:
Ian Cheng Emissary Sunsets The Self, 2017
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh: Sep 22, 2017–Jan 28, 2018
© Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh. Photo: Bryan Conley
