Paper short abstract:

By thinking through the concept of media interruption into the field of culture and its history this paper shall broadly focus on institutions such as Sarai and KHOJ (International Artist’s Association) in New Delhi looking at them as active laboratories of artistic intervention. It further looks at its associated networks such as Raqs Media Collective (Sarai) based in Delhi and CAMP (KHOJ) based in Mumbai. The central focus of the paper would be specifically highlighting the conceptual methodologies of these institutions and collectives. Further, the paper speaks of the directions in which these technologically driven interruptions pushed the horizons of cultural practice in India.

Paper long abstract:

The emergence of digital technologies is a crucial shift that has taken place post the economic liberalization of the 1990s in the cultural landscape of India. The curatorial turn in the following decade facilitated a diverse range of cultural forms like documentary films and experimental videos to be shown within the domain of contemporary art, translating its life into a new context. The category of new media practitioner emerged and facilitated an arena of fields such as creative writing, filmmaking, music, graphic design and visual art (painting, sculpture) to re-invent their own role within culture, through the very material possibilities technology has offered.

By conceptualizing this as media's interruption into the field of culture and its history this paper shall broadly focus on institutions such as Sarai and KHOJ (International Artist's Association) in New Delhi looking at them as active laboratories of artistic intervention. It further looks at its associated networks such as Raqs Media Collective (Sarai) based in Delhi and CAMP (KHOJ) based in Mumbai. The central focus of the paper would be specifically highlighting the conceptual methodologies of these institutions and collectives. Further, the paper speaks of the directions in which these technologically driven interruptions pushed the horizons of cultural practice in India.