Outland announces acquisition of Ian Cheng's "3FACE" by The Whitney Museum of American Art
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Thursday, November 14, 2024


Outland announces acquisition of Ian Cheng's "3FACE" by The Whitney Museum of American Art
(Clockwise from left) 3FACE #16, 3FACE #6, 3FACE #1, and 3FACE #11, four tokenized 3FACE artworks in the ‘unbound’ state by Ian Cheng, 2022. Courtesy the artist and Outland Art.



NEW YORK, NY.- Outland announced that Ian Cheng’s groundbreaking adaptive digital artwork 3FACE has been acquired by the Whitney Museum of American Art, marking the artist’s third placement in the canon-defining institution’s permanent collection.

This acquisition, made possible by a generous donation from Outland, follows the Museum of Modern Art’s acquisition of 3FACE in October 2023. This marks the second major institution to recognize the historic significance of this work, not only in the landscape of contemporary art, but also within a longer tradition of new media explorations in the art history canon. As a pioneering simulation-based artwork, 3FACE finds a welcome home amongst the Whitney Museum’s collection which historically has included innovative, boundary-pushing experimentations in new media.

3FACE is Cheng’s most ambitious experimental artwork to date. The collection of artworks explores blockchain technologies and the decentralization of data, looking closely at the ways in which human interaction with new tools can inform how we understand ourselves. Each 3FACE artwork begins in a latent state, and evolves over time to create a portrait of its holder based on their crypto wallet’s transaction data. In this way the artwork is adaptive, unique to each holder, transforming inferences about behavior into iconographic visual outputs, singular compositions, and rich, on-chain metadata. The Whitney Museum acquired four 3FACE artworks (#1, #6, #11, #16) in ‘unbound’ states, which evolved into portraits once ‘bound’ to the collection wallet.

3FACE continues Cheng’s long tradition of using simulation-based technologies to explore how agents—from humans to autonomous software—deal with chaos and uncertainty. Previously the Whitney Museum has acquired Cheng’s BOB (Bag of Beliefs), 2018-2019, a simulation of a living software being that interacts with and learns from its viewers. The Whitney Museum also holds Cheng’s Baby feat. Ikaria, 2013, another simulation work that poses non-sentient chatbots in dialogue with one another.

Together, these three works have set a historical precedent for artistic engagements with algorithmic outputs. Using deep narrative and emotionally affective interactivity to offer ahead-of-its-time insights into technologically mediated human conditions, these works arrive right at the cusp of artificial intelligence’s widespread public adoption.

Ian Cheng

Since 2012, artist Ian Cheng has produced a series of simulations exploring an agent’s capacity to deal with an ever-changing environment. These works culminated in the Emissaries trilogy, which introduced a narrative agent whose motivation to enact a story was set into conflict with the open-ended chaos of the simulation. Recently, he has developed BOB (Bag of Beliefs), an AI creature whose personality, body, and life story evolve across exhibitions, what Cheng calls “art with a nervous system.” Currently Cheng is developing Life After BOB, a real-time anime miniseries.

Ian Cheng has exhibited widely including solo presentations at MoMA PS1; Serpentine Galleries; The Shed; Leeum Museum of Art; LUMA Foundation; Carnegie Museum of Art; De Young Museum; Sharjah Biennial; Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo; Julia Stoschek Collection; and group presentations at Venice Biennale; Museum of Modern Art; M Plus; MoCA LA; Moderna Museet; Whitney Museum of American Art; Hirshhorn Museum; Tate Modern; Louisiana Museum; Fondation Louis Vuitton.










Today's News

December 24, 2023

You need Felix the Cat? Early Popeye? Talk to the king of silent animation.

MoMA announces new digital art acquisitions, exhibitions, and artist collaborations

'Home Alone 2' fans can buy this four-story slice of movie history

Mumbai Gallery Weekend is back from January 11th to 14th, 2024

Casa Susanna photographs, documenting America's first trans network, go on view at the AGO

A marriage of art and history

The artists we lost in 2023, in their words

Tate Modern to stage Emily Kam Kngwarray exhibition in 2025

Items signed by Ronald Reagan, Woddy Guthrie and Albert Einstein headline online auction

Arts Council Malta announces artist for national pavilion

36 hours in Joshua Tree National Park, California

Beatles signatures and Bond film scripts sell for thousands at Ewbank's

The Bilbao Fine Arts Museum exhibits works donated by Nicolás de Lekuona's family

Han Nefkens Foundation announces the first recipient of the new South Asian Video Art Production Grant

10th Duhok International Film Festival winners announced

At City Ballet, history is made with two Black dewdrops

The world has finally caught up to Colman Domingo

Explaining the South on Instagram, one custom at a time

Tate Liverpool appoints Gilbert-Ash as main contractor for gallery transformation

Skyhorse expands its footprint in conservative publishing

Sofia Boutella kicks her way to a leading role in 'Rebel Moon'

France's president condemns 'Manhunt' against Gérard Depardieu

Artpace secures $350,000 grant from the City of San Antonio and Bexar County for rooftop renovation project

Outland announces acquisition of Ian Cheng's "3FACE" by The Whitney Museum of American Art




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Attorneys
Truck Accident Attorneys
Accident Attorneys
Holistic Dentist
Abogado de accidentes
สล็อต
สล็อตเว็บตรง

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site Parroquia Natividad del Señor
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful