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Would Impressionists like Monet and Renoir have existed had it not been for the invention of the portable paint tubes that allowed them to escape the studio, take inspiration from the world outdoors and experiment with new lightfast pigments invented by industrial chemists in the 19th century? What would have become of the ‘60s pop art movement had Andy Warhol not discovered silkscreen printing, the process of transferring images from magazines or newspapers to canvas? Closer home, one wouldn’t have known the artistic possibilities with the camera till Akbar Padamsee in 1969 recreated one of his own paintings of an abstract landscape using projected light, tinted filters, stencils and photographic slides. Misunderstood and rejected then, it started art’s tryst with technology in India.
The debate over how much technology is too much technology within the fine art realm has been an ongoing one but art and tech have always made for inspiring bedfellows even as purists remained wary of machine intrusion. From painting with a stylus on a tablet to immersive augmented reality art, 3D-printed sculptures to paintings created by codes and algorithms, for adventurous artists, tech has been more than a tool.
JENNY BHATT: TECH TONIC
For Mumbai-based pop surrealist artist Jenny Bhatt, the “web3-based metaverse” has been a new home for her art since she introduced augmented reality (AR) to her digital interactive art project ‘MokshaShots’ about a year ago. In her latest in the series — ‘Metamind: Infinite Possibility’ an acrylic on canvas piece that is part of the Art of India (AoI) week-long showcase that starts in Mumbai on March 19 — Bhatt uses digital layers to bring motifs of infinity, metaverse, and the human mind to life.
“When a viewer trains their phone lens on it, parts of the piece start
animating,” says Bhatt, enthused by the AR technology of adding virtual elements like animation and 3D objects that can enhance her artwork’s meaning. “I can innovate in a way that I can’t with traditional media. It’s not limited by space or location and the viewer is a participant, taking the story forward by the choices they make on their device. ”
JAIDEEP MEHROTRA: DIGITAL BRUSH
A trailblazer of this hybrid artform, Jaideep Mehrotra, has been tapping the potential of blending age-old art techniques with new-age technology since the ‘90s. “Most of my life I’d been working with the ‘goonga medium’ or paintings that are essentially mute,” he says. That is before an Apple Powermac replaced his easel, a digital pen his paintbrush and catalysed his move into computer-generated lithographs and video art installations, undeterred by conservatives who called it a “gimmick”.
His latest is a time-lapse infinite loop video titled ‘Within’ that will take viewers at the AOI on a kaleidoscopic journey through vignettes of people, places and things. “It depicts the preoccupation of metropolises and similarity of lives around the globe,” he says, describing the new perspectives that the digital medium affords him. “Artists should use whatever visual language is available to them to allow the message to slide in. ”
Yet, some are worried by artificial intelligence (AI) tools that can convert text into immaculate images in seconds. Bhatt, despite her experiments with digital art for over two decades, feels apprehensive about the ethics surrounding AI art. “I’ve always been excited about what tech can do for art including creative coding that NFT artists use to generate random visual outputs. But not machine-generated AI art. That feels like a breach of another artist’s copyright,” she maintains.
Mehrotra, on the other hand, finds AI an “amazing new addition” that needs to be investigated, not brushed aside. “Art has no parameters. The moment you create parameters you destroy it. To celebrate art, people have to be open to different realms. ”
PRATEEK ARORA: SCI-FI MEETS AI
While the jury is still out, AI has definitely altered the rules of creativity. Screenwriter Prateek Arora is one of those unlikely artists who uses AI as his muse. “I was always interested in science fiction, fantasy and horror but as a writer and creator, shows that I pitched for in that genre were seen as too experimental and risky. ”
Until AI happened to him six months ago and took his artistic vision beyond what he had imagined. Now, his photoreal AI creations of fantastical and alien creatures that merge Indian aesthetics with horror and sci-fi have gone viral. “I’ve also had interest from directors and producers from the south Asian diaspora,” says Arora, who dismisses critics who deem this artform ‘unoriginal’.
“No one can be the arbiter of what art is or isn’t. Isn’t art after all a rapid iteration of what you see around you, getting inspired and executing that with your own originality?” he stresses.
The debate over how much technology is too much technology within the fine art realm has been an ongoing one but art and tech have always made for inspiring bedfellows even as purists remained wary of machine intrusion. From painting with a stylus on a tablet to immersive augmented reality art, 3D-printed sculptures to paintings created by codes and algorithms, for adventurous artists, tech has been more than a tool.
JENNY BHATT: TECH TONIC
For Mumbai-based pop surrealist artist Jenny Bhatt, the “web3-based metaverse” has been a new home for her art since she introduced augmented reality (AR) to her digital interactive art project ‘MokshaShots’ about a year ago. In her latest in the series — ‘Metamind: Infinite Possibility’ an acrylic on canvas piece that is part of the Art of India (AoI) week-long showcase that starts in Mumbai on March 19 — Bhatt uses digital layers to bring motifs of infinity, metaverse, and the human mind to life.
“When a viewer trains their phone lens on it, parts of the piece start
animating,” says Bhatt, enthused by the AR technology of adding virtual elements like animation and 3D objects that can enhance her artwork’s meaning. “I can innovate in a way that I can’t with traditional media. It’s not limited by space or location and the viewer is a participant, taking the story forward by the choices they make on their device. ”
JAIDEEP MEHROTRA: DIGITAL BRUSH
A trailblazer of this hybrid artform, Jaideep Mehrotra, has been tapping the potential of blending age-old art techniques with new-age technology since the ‘90s. “Most of my life I’d been working with the ‘goonga medium’ or paintings that are essentially mute,” he says. That is before an Apple Powermac replaced his easel, a digital pen his paintbrush and catalysed his move into computer-generated lithographs and video art installations, undeterred by conservatives who called it a “gimmick”.
His latest is a time-lapse infinite loop video titled ‘Within’ that will take viewers at the AOI on a kaleidoscopic journey through vignettes of people, places and things. “It depicts the preoccupation of metropolises and similarity of lives around the globe,” he says, describing the new perspectives that the digital medium affords him. “Artists should use whatever visual language is available to them to allow the message to slide in. ”
Yet, some are worried by artificial intelligence (AI) tools that can convert text into immaculate images in seconds. Bhatt, despite her experiments with digital art for over two decades, feels apprehensive about the ethics surrounding AI art. “I’ve always been excited about what tech can do for art including creative coding that NFT artists use to generate random visual outputs. But not machine-generated AI art. That feels like a breach of another artist’s copyright,” she maintains.
Mehrotra, on the other hand, finds AI an “amazing new addition” that needs to be investigated, not brushed aside. “Art has no parameters. The moment you create parameters you destroy it. To celebrate art, people have to be open to different realms. ”
PRATEEK ARORA: SCI-FI MEETS AI
While the jury is still out, AI has definitely altered the rules of creativity. Screenwriter Prateek Arora is one of those unlikely artists who uses AI as his muse. “I was always interested in science fiction, fantasy and horror but as a writer and creator, shows that I pitched for in that genre were seen as too experimental and risky. ”
Until AI happened to him six months ago and took his artistic vision beyond what he had imagined. Now, his photoreal AI creations of fantastical and alien creatures that merge Indian aesthetics with horror and sci-fi have gone viral. “I’ve also had interest from directors and producers from the south Asian diaspora,” says Arora, who dismisses critics who deem this artform ‘unoriginal’.
“No one can be the arbiter of what art is or isn’t. Isn’t art after all a rapid iteration of what you see around you, getting inspired and executing that with your own originality?” he stresses.
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