3FACE is an adaptive artwork by artist Ian Cheng Launching on Outland

Ian Cheng’s personality test for NFT collectors connects the impulses toward speculation and introspection.

The Drop

3face Launch Schedule

• August 25, 2022 10:30 AM: Allowlist – 0.2E
• August 26, 2022 10:30 AM: Mintpass (Elemental by Fang Lijun non 1/1) – 0.1E
• August 27, 2022 10:30 AM: Public sale – 0.5E
• Airdrop (free):
  • Elemental by Fang Lijun 1/1
  • Fragments By James Jean 1/1
  • Fragments – Salvador Mundi
  • L’informe by Rachel Rose

Ian Cheng’ s 3FACE is an NFT that can serve as a personal assessment tool. It’ s a generative work that invites users to explore their personalities through a series of questions and prompts. Cheng is a psychologist who studies human behavior, so he built 3FACE around a model that came from his knowledge of cognitive science and his intuition about how people think. He believes that we each possess innate gifts, but our environment shapes us into what we are today. We can learn to embrace our natures, but if we do not, we risk becoming self-absorbed narcissists. Cheng wants to help people find happiness by encouraging them to cultivate positive relationships and pursue creative endeavors. His 3FACE is a thoughtful exploration of the ways in which people interact with the world and each other.

3Face is an interactive art piece that comments on the personal, social, and cultural aspects of collectors.

3Face cleverly positions the act of creating a generative asset as a metaphor for personal growth. When collectors visit the 3Face project site to create a new NFT, they are presented with a number of “daemons” (animated personalities) to choose from. These daemons read the information stored within the user’s Ethereum address to infer certain characteristics about them. For example, does this address belong to someone who likes whales, bots, investors, artists, or lovers of digital art? The 3Face algorithm then compiles a profile based on these inferred characteristics. The resulting token visualises these traits. A face appears out of a primordial pool, its features matching the profile compiled by the 3Face algorithm. Below the surface, the nurturing hand of the blockchain struggles against the natural instinct of the code; a stone-faced creature strives to bring order to elemental colour. The intrinsic seed of code blossoms in the social environment of the Ethereum network, giving the creator an approximation of their self. If the NFT gets traded or moved, the 3Face algorithm re-calculates the profile and generates a new version of the NFT, allowing the owner to accurately represent themselves to others.

Cheng is an artist without a signature style. Several of his projects have taken the form of simulations—self-playing video games whose courses change slightly each time they run. He enlists animators and concept artists to develop the visual language for these projects. While Cheng favors detailed environments and schematic figures, following a compositional principle of anime that encourages viewers to identify with characters and imagine themselves in the richly elaborated on-screen world, the specific aesthetics vary from one project to the next. What connects Cheng’s works is his intellectual method, a way of thinking up the artwork that overlays concepts and materials. – Brian Droitcour

There are only 4096 3FACE artworks available ever.

Each 3FACE begins as a unique energy daemon.
Once held, 3FACE reads your wallet’s public transaction history
and infers the inner forces that compose your personality.
Then 3FACE begins to adapt itself to you…

3FACE is a new way to express the mess that is you.
Forget trying to explain yourself as a coherent person.
You are a composition of daemons ~
an immutable NATURE
(the energetic daemon that deeply drives you),
a semi-mutable NURTURE
(the civilizing daemon that mediates Nature),
and a mutable POSTURE
(the managing daemon balancing your Nature and Nurture).

3FACE portrays your inner drama so you don’t have to.
As the history and contents of your wallet change,
update your 3FACE to express changes in your personality
(and reveal the parts of you that are unchangeable).

Join the adventure of a life lived with 3FACE.

Frequently Asked Questions