MFA student’s artwork “Ba Huang” blasts off
Artwork by Chen Tianchen, a second-year MFA student in Alfred University’s School of Art and Design, recently took off – literally – powered by a rocket that ignited off the coast of Laiyang, Shandong Province, China.
"Ba Huang," a 30x30 cm art piece composed of three layers of colored acrylic, rose into space on Jan. 11. The artwork included an embedded memory chip, loaded with an artificial intelligence language model developed by Tianchan, who also studied artificial intelligence algorithms at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. According to the website Mana, “Ba Huang” is “the first AI-crated artwork in human history to enter space.”
The artwork is expected to remain in space for more than 20 years.
Tianchen is currently studying in the School of Art and Design's Institute for Electronic Arts. For an extended discussion of the historical significance of "Ba Huang," click onthe Mana article, "In a Great Leap for Art and Technology Integration, Artist Tianchen's "Ba Huang" Ventures into Space."