NL premiere

From Paradigm to Paradigm, into the Biomic Time (2023) is playfully reminiscent of a newspaper-press, stuck in an eternal loop. The work comments on the constant regurgitation of misinformed and manipulative facts in relation to varied environmental issues by individuals and organisations as they influence public opinion to protect their own interests. It is a reminder to listen closely to the echoes of history and avoid mindlessly replaying the discordant notes of the past. The work deconstructs political rhetoric related to varied environmental issues by collating statements made by influential individuals, politicians, and organisations. Employing a different method of data manipulation, the statements were transformed by an algorithmic Haiku generator to produce a poem to accompany each of the untrue statements. Forming a glitching musical code, the resulting 91 Haikus play out accompanied by a score for pianola. The accompanying digital publication allows the viewer to connect each of the poems to its original statement, alongside expanded essays detailing the truth behind these falsehoods.

As the challenges and environmental consequences of climate change manifest, artist Nandita Kumar reflects on the knowledge gap between the scientific community, political spheres, and the populace at large. While fake news has plagued climate- and environmental science for decades, slowing or completely derailing “progress,” information overload, complexity, and lack of meaning has left people feeling anxious and powerless to enact real environmental change. “History never repeats itself,” wrote author Mark Twain, “but it does often rhyme.”

Nandita Kumar is a new media artist and system designer who works across art, science, technology, and community. Her interest lies in propelling the human race towards sustainable development, which focuses not only on environmental protection but also on social development. Kumar’s current projects are heavily research-based. She is interested in “the data,” its representation, and how one communicates that to a larger audience. Her data-driven artistic experiments probe a given topic through its nature, scarcity, politics, interdependency, and utility, and simultaneously explore methods of engaging audiences through interactive sound installations.