Published by Koenig Books. Edited by Joseph Constable, Rebecca Lewin, Veronica So. Text by Nora Khan, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Yana Peel, Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Ben Vickers.
Emissaries (2015–17) is New York–based artist Ian Cheng's (born 1984) trilogy of simulations about cognitive evolution, past and future, and the ecological conditions that shape it. Each simulation is centered on the life of an "emissary" who is caught between unraveling old realities and emerging weird ones.
Published by Spector Books/Kunsthalle Düsseldorf. Edited by Gregor Jansen. Edited with text by Elodie Evers, Irina Raskin. Text by Jenny Jaskey, John Kelsey, Luciana Parisi, Kevin Simler.
“Darwin said the greatest live simulation is nature herself, who incessantly tries and fails aloud, never stopping at perfection. But nature is often too fast, too slow, too big, too small for us. We need live simulation at scale with human spacetime, but unending in its variety and blind to our barometers of quality. A live simulation that we can feel, but does not give a fig for us,” says artist Ian Cheng. Distorted views, mutated images, and varied texts are exemplary of Cheng’s interest in behavioural change and the potential of working with live simulations. Live Simulations is the first monograph to visualize Cheng’s artistic practice and make its principles tangible in book form.
Ian Cheng: Live Simulations