South Asian Digital Art Archive

Dhvāni

Category

Dhvāni means ​“reso­nan­ce” in Sanskrit. Resonances bet­ween soun­ding objects and bet­ween peo­p­le are the star­ting point for this instal­la­ti­on by Indian-born artist and thin­ker Budhaditya Chattopadhyay. In STUK’s cour­ty­ard, a web is stret­ched with hund­reds of Indian cere­mo­ni­al bells and other instru­ments, such as wind chi­mes and ghun­groos. By means of a self-built arti­fi­ci­al intel­li­gen­ce sys­tem, this resoun­ding net­work res­ponds to human pre­sen­ce: foot­steps, voi­ces, hand clap­ping. Through machi­ne learning, the inter­con­nec­ted sys­tem impro­ves its per­for­man­ce over the six weeks of Hear Here, cre­a­ting a beyond-human reso­nant orga­nism. In this way, Chattopadhyay links ancient musi­cal tra­di­ti­ons with con­tem­po­ra­ry tech­no­lo­gies, invi­ting visi­tors to lis­ten empa­the­ti­cally and get involved in an entangled mesh.

 

Year Published

2025

Type of Art

AI-Based Art

Theme

Identity
Migration
Environment

Softwares Used

Python

Credits

Artist: Budhaditya Chattopadhyay, Coding support: Yann Patrick Martins, Engineering support: Subhadeep Biswas, Video edit: Adelina Malekova

Audience

Everyone

Budhaditya Chattopadhyay

Budhaditya Chattopadhyay

India

Budhaditya Chattopadhyay is an Indian-born artist, researcher, and writer whose practice spans sound, cinema, media arts, performance, aesthetics and media theory. Currently based between Den Haag, The Netherlands, and Bergen, Norway, his work investigates the materiality of sound and listening, focusing on themes of migration, ecology, memory, and decoloniality. Through installations, videoworks, live performances, and text, he explores sound as a critical, spatial, and affective medium that reimagines the relationship between people, place, and environment.

Chattopadhyay holds a PhD from the Academy of Creative and Performing Arts, Leiden University, and has been affiliated with institutions across Europe and Asia. His works have been widely exhibited and performed internationally, and his publications include several books on sound studies and contemporary art. He continues to bridge practice and theory through inter- and trans-disciplinary sound-based research.

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