The Kinetic Pulse: How Indian Artists Are Engineering Social Critique
Ask artist Shailesh B.R. about the initial spark that ignited his passion for kinetic sculptures, and his response is unexpectedly elemental. "Electricity," he states plainly. Growing up in a remote Karnataka village that only received grid power in 1996, Shailesh became mesmerized by the sheer magic of a switch's flick—the instant ability to animate objects, illuminate darkness, and set mechanisms into motion. This foundational wonder has propelled his artistic journey into the heart of machine-driven expression.
From Playful Machines to Profound Questions
Shailesh's inaugural foray was a drawing machine, a simple yet ingenious contraption where pens were attached to a remote-controlled toy car, creating abstract patterns as it traversed paper on the floor. "It was pure play," he reflects, "and it revealed the potential for art born from movement—where the machine itself becomes an integral part of the artistic gesture." Now 39, his trajectory has been remarkable, including a prestigious 2024 residency at CERN in Geneva, the global epicenter of particle physics.
His solo exhibition, The Sky in the Palm, held late last year at Delhi's Vadehra Art Gallery, was a bustling arena of mechanical devices, each meticulously crafted to interrogate social conventions. A standout piece, Let’s Make a Choice: Swayamvara, features a machine that programmatically accepts or rejects viewers as suitable marriage candidates, directly challenging the illusion of personal agency in societal structures. "How much choice do we genuinely possess?" Shailesh poses, embedding this query into the machine's very logic.
Automating Ritual and Questioning Devotion
In his kinetic installation Prayer Machine 2.0, a series of interconnected devices mechanically replicates sacred rituals—ringing bells, making offerings—prompting viewers to ponder if even devotion can be automated. "I'm drawn to that delicate threshold," Shailesh explains, "where a repeated action transitions from mundane to profoundly questionable. The social commentary isn't delivered through direct statements but emerges organically from the machine's own behavior."
Shailesh represents a burgeoning cohort of younger Indian artists for whom technology serves as both medium and muse, enabling radical innovation in materials and themes. As experimentation with mechanized practices, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Augmented Reality (AR) accelerates, the dynamic interplay between human and machine is evolving, catalyzing entirely new artistic lexicons.
The Global and Local Context of Tech-Art
In an interview with Artsy discussing trends poised to define art-making in 2026, Jess Baxter, an assistant curator at London's Tate Modern, observed: "AI has instigated a seismic shift in perception and trust. We will increasingly question the authenticity of what we see, ensuring artists continue to harness and critique technological tools, as seen in the works of Hito Steyerl or Aziza Kadyri."
This trend is vividly manifest in India through practitioners like Harshit Agrawal. A graduate of the MIT Media Lab and Google Arts and Culture's inaugural artist resident in India (2024), Agrawal employs technology as a creative instrument while simultaneously subjecting it to critical scrutiny. "I use technology as both my material and subject matter," he states, "to highlight our evolving relationship with it and its deepening integration into every facet of our sociopolitical existence."
Interrogating Spirituality and Data Consumption
At the recent Bengaluru Hubba, Agrawal, 34, utilized the framework of religious rituals to examine spirituality, the automation of creative labor, and the immense resources required to sustain data centers. His work, Ritual Robots—Havan at the Data Kund, reimagined the traditional havan ritual within an AI data center context. A robotic arm substituted for the priest, symbolically offering oblations into a modified data fire pit (kund). LED strips, mimicking firewood and lining the kund, displayed binary code, drawing a direct correlation between the data processed per robotic movement cycle and the corresponding electricity consumed.
Exploring Systems, Errors, and Hybrid Creation
A longstanding fascination with machines and systems led artist L.N. Tallur, 54, to create interactive works like Apocalypse as early as 2010. However, the pandemic period deepened his engagement with digital tools, machine learning, and AI, culminating in exhibitions such as Chirag-e-AI (2022) and Neti-Neti: Glitch in the Code (2024).
"Technology enables us to engage with systems like repetition, error, automation, and data—elements beyond the capacity of the human hand alone," Tallur notes. "I'm particularly intrigued by the tension between control and unpredictability; machines promise precision, yet they can generate glitches and unexpected outcomes."
For instance, his piece Mud Pixel, Dead Pixel featured whirring vehicle tires splattering mud on walls in "designed accidents." In DataWeave 2025, displayed at Bengaluru's Freedom Park, Tallur collaborated with dhokra artisans to craft a bronze sculpture evocative of Mahatma Gandhi. He draws a parallel between the dhokra method of layering wax coils and the additive process of 3D printing, viewing this fusion of handmade, machine-made, and hand-machine-made techniques as a vital enrichment of his visual vocabulary.
The Accessible Allure of Kinetic Art
Another significant stream includes artists creating machine-driven kinetic artworks that are not necessarily high-tech. Many draw inspiration from Swiss artist Jean Tinguely, who utilized scrap metal and discarded items to construct playful kinetic sculptures. Kausik Mukhopadhyay, 65, assembles discarded household objects and obsolete technological equipment into complex assemblages that articulate his philosophical concerns.
"Movement introduces an additional dimension to art," Mukhopadhyay asserts. "I often feel that art's pretentious seriousness and aura can deter interaction. Kinetic elements make the work feel less cerebral and intimidating. That's why I employ simple machines, always leaving their mechanisms exposed to the viewer."
Similarly, artist Niroj Satpathy utilizes reclaimed materials for his kinetic sculptures. For the ongoing Kochi Biennale, he created grotesque kinetic forms primarily from landfill-site materials as part of his site-specific installation Dhalan.
Institutional Support and Future Contemplations
Art platforms and institutions are increasingly dedicating resources to understanding technology's role in artistic practice through specialized residencies and commissions. The Khoj International Artists’ Association is currently hosting the international exhibition Are You Human in Delhi, exploring how evolving technologies reshape concepts of humanity, gender, caste, and socio-ecological structures in the 2020s and beyond.
The exhibition features interactive works employing virtual reality, facial recognition systems, AI tools, and even a drawing game pitting AI against humans. In Gondwana, a durational VR experience by new-media duo Ben Andrews and Emma Roberts, participants are transported to Australia's Daintree Rainforest via VR headset, experiencing its wonders while contemplating the impacts of human intervention.
As artists expand the frontiers of human-machine interaction, they inevitably grapple with profound metaphysical inquiries. Shailesh, for one, contemplates a pivotal question: "AI leads me to ponder what lies beyond it. If machines can generate language, arguments, and decisions, could they eventually attain something akin to artificial enlightenment?"
This exploration signifies a transformative moment in Indian contemporary art, where kinetic mechanisms and digital technologies are not merely tools but active collaborators in critiquing and redefining the human condition.
