Very Personal Computing: In Artist’s New Work, A.I. Meets Fatherhood

Ian Cheng brings his latest piece to the Shed, a narrative animation powered by a video game engine and partly inspired by his daughter.

Ian Cheng was feeling adrift. It was the start of 2013; he was nearly 30, with an art degree from Berkeley and another from Columbia, but he needed an idea, something to build a career on. Pondering the question one wintry afternoon in the balcony cafe at the Whole Foods Market on Houston Street, a place that promises people-watching and “you time,” he found himself gazing absently at the shoppers below. He grew increasingly transfixed. The market was its own little ecosystem, with clear-cut rules but elements of chance thrown in. Somebody’s dog that wouldn’t behave. A guy sneaking food from the salad bar. People doubling back to get a plate. An idea began to form in Cheng’s head, an idea that drew on his other major at Berkeley, in cognitive science. His thoughts ran to complex systems. Emergent behavior. And what if a video game engine could … Today, eight years later, Cheng is an internationally known artist who has used artificial intelligence and video game technology to explore such themes as the nature of human consciousness and a future in which we coexist with intelligent machines.