USING ART TO DEMOCRATISE ENVIRONMENT DATA

Programmer turned multimedia artist Nandita Kumar combines art, environmental science, technology, and community to create interactive art installations in the hope to make data on climate change accessible to everyone. She uses a plethora of technology aids such as sound, video/animation, performance, smartphone apps, customised motherboards, and even solar/microwave sensors.

In her artwork, Paradigm to Paradigm into the Bionic Time, she has presented 91 inaccurate claims like 'coconut tree is not a tree' or 'Aarey colony is not a forest' made by authority figures in the form of haikus on a 40-ft scroll. From these haikus, she produced a sound score, and further a book that documents the implications each of these statements had. Her other works are largely self-sustaining mini ecosystems that look like terrariums, that demonstrate the concept of biomimicry.

Among her many achievements, Nandita was a finalist for the 23rd Annual Wallace Art Awards 2014 in New Zealand. Her movies Birth of Brainfly and Tentacles of Dimension have been screened at top art film festivals across the world. Last year, she received the Digital Futures Grant from Khoj, and this year she is selected for DAAD Artist Residency Berlin for 2022-23.