Artists are Reimagining AI, Immersive Tech and Gaming in India’s Thriving Tech Ecosystem – Unveils British Council and Unbox Cultural Futures Report

2024-11-28 10:37:57 Technology

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The new insights report ‘Arts and Technologies in India: Reimagining the Future’ was launched at the BEYOND Conference in Manchester. The report underscores the critical role of UK-India collaborations in fostering innovation and cultural exchange.

November 26, 2024, New Delhi: The British Council, UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities, in partnership with Unbox Cultural Futures, has today launched the new insights report ‘Arts and Technologies in India: Reimagining the Future’. Presented at the BEYOND Conference in Manchester, the UK’s premier event for research and development in the creative industries, the report sheds light on the influence of artists on the development of technologies in one of the fastest growing tech ecosystems in the world: India. The launch featured a keynote address by Jahnavi Phalkey, Director of Science Gallery, Bengaluru.

The report foregrounds, a new generation of artists in India developing novel applications of advanced technologies, critiquing their biases, and engaging audiences in the imagination of digital futures. These artists are diversifying cultural perceptions of technologies from AI to gaming, inspiring new digital aesthetics, redeveloping AI datasets, and offering new perspectives on the future of creativity, technology and society.

This is one of a series of reports on arts and technologies by the British Council in collaboration with international partners. Together these reports highlight creative practice at the intersection of arts and technologies as an important site of innovation internationally, alongside a valuable space for the development of inclusive and interconnected creative technologies.

Ruchira Das, Director Arts India at the British Council said, “There is a rich and growing ecosystem of artists and creative practitioners innovating at the forefront of advanced technology in India. Despite this growing field of practice, and the increase in local and international interest in creative technology in India, there is little formal mapping of the artists, cultural spaces, studios and communities that constitute the country’s arts and technology ecosystem. The research will discuss this gap, providing a comprehensive overview of cutting-edge artistic practice at the intersection of arts and technologies by foregrounding the voices of the local artists and cultural practitioners at its heart.”

Hannah Andrews, Director of Digital Innovation in Arts, at the British Council said, “Artists have always occupied a unique role in the development of technologies. They create new tools and techniques, imagine diverse and accessible digital futures, and engage with complex technical and ethical questions. At a moment of significant social and economic shifts in the impact of technology on our lives, understanding the value of artists working critically and creatively with technologies is of increasing importance, as is strengthening connections between diverse communities innovating internationally. Alongside informing our future work, I hope this report contributes to the growing recognition of this exciting space and the international knowledge exchange that can support it.”

Highlights of the Report Includes:

Harshit Agrawal, an artist redefining Western-centric AI datasets, places Indian visual culture and aesthetics at the forefront of his work. In Masked Reality, Agrawal uses AI to engage with themes of social justice intrinsic to Indian cultural heritage, while Land(ing) Page, a 3D digital piece, serves as an allegory for India\'s media landscape, enveloping the audience in a vivid field of poppies constructed from viral Indian social media videos.

Computational Mama, an ‘AI prompt crafter, creative technologist, and designer’, harnesses coding languages, digital tools, and emerging technologies to probe the biases embedded within machine learning and algorithms. Her creative technology studio, Ajaibghar, innovates museum experiences using interactive and technology-driven solutions.

Hasan S, an independent artist, makes cutting-edge robotics, AI, and 3D-printing technologies accessible to local Indian communities. His Kalpana Innovation Lab provides a safe maker-space environment for girls from marginalised backgrounds and low-income families, empowering them with skills in coding, media, and creativity.

Avinash Kumar, design strategist, researcher, and artist, is blending Indian mythology, contemporary art, and technologies to envision alternative, decolonial futures for India that reflect the country’s rich complexity and diversity. In collaboration with dancer Jayalakshmi Eshwar and music producer Sri Rama Murthy, their transmedia projects ‘Antariksha Sanchar’ and ‘Elsewhere in India’ celebrate South Asian multicultural heritage through video games, live performances and media arts.

Jahnavi Phalkey, Director of Science Gallery Bengaluru (SGB), pioneers initiatives for young people to engage with science and the arts. SGB is building a studio and laboratory to facilitate art, science, and technology research, offering access to cutting-edge digital technology for interdisciplinary exploration.

Expert Perspectives:

Shuddhabrata Sengupta, Artist and Curator at Raqs Media Collective, New Delhi, commented:
‘It\'s interesting to think of artists as disruptive… In a world that is increasingly being impacted by algorithms, they’re asking the questions that are not yet factored into algorithmic design.’

Indranjan Banerjee, Senior Curator, Khoj Studios said: ‘It is our collective imagination that has led to a certain kind of technological future, and artists are crucial to critically reimagine this future.’

About the British Council

The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. We support peace and prosperity by building connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and countries worldwide. We do this through our work in arts and culture, education and the English language. We work with people in over 200 countries and territories and are on the ground in more than 100 countries. In 2022–23 we reached 600 million people.