Art Cart

While the organisation is housed in cyberia, under the address www.theaea.org , it is the Vasant Kunj house of 51-year-old Shankar Barua, the brain behind the AeA, that is acting as the warehouse, with cartons, cupboards and trunks overflowing with thousands of CDs containing digital art — from the highly political works of graphic designer Chaz Maviyane-Davies, who migrated from Zimbabwe to the US, to the music of Indian electronica band Tatva Kundalini. Artists like Bruce Eves, who creates disturbing artwork about homosexuality in the 20th century, have archived their entire portfolio with the AeA. And Barua says there is more in his home near Nainital where almost everyday the courier boy knocks on the door with more CDs.

Despite this formidable collection, the AeA is only partly about archiving. “Our real thrust is to empower people and institutions who have innovative ideas about using technology to create art,” says Barua, who was also the director of the fabulous Carnival of e-Creativity & Change-agents Conclave held in Delhi in February. That’s why he was pleased when he came across two “bright young men” Rishab Parmar and Ashhar Farooqui, whom the AeA recommended for a digital media residency programme in Spain. “I was glad they won the residency. Parmar has some great ideas but few tools or resources to translate them into workable solutions,” he says. Farooqui, on the other hand, is a musician with a difference. He had a desktop PC on the stage as a musical instrument when his band Envision played.

Look closely at the AeA’s archive and you’ll find music in which the software Abelton Live has been juxtaposed with the flute notes of Hariprasad Chaurasia. “This CD is part of the archive because it is representative of the kind of music being produced today,” says Barua, who admits to being brutally selective about the matter than goes into the archive.