Personalising our living space with the art we enjoy viewing is nothing new…but now that many of us have the world in our pockets, we spend less time in our living space and more in cyberspace. The possibilities of the art we can see are thus becoming unimaginable – and without even making a dent in the said pockets! In a bid to appear more attractive than the competition, a cellphone manufacturing company recently enlisted the skills of Arzan Khambatta, Michael Foley, Mukul Goyal, Rakesh Thakore, Anthony Lopez, Sumir Tagra and Jiten Thukral. With a cellphone model as their muse, these image-makers were asked to create a unique collection of mobile themes.

Among the designs that will enable mobile users to personalise their handsets, the wallpaper by industrial designer, Michael Foley, is a sign of our times – for it is designed to gradually change colour as day turns into night. This is in sync with the recent invention by a team of Japanese researchers from the Osaka University, who have created a set of emotion-sensing furniture that changes colour. The round table is fitted with a computer and built-in LCD display and the four chairs are linked to it via a wireless signal. Sensors in the table scan objects placed on it…and the computer floods the furniture with the matching hue! One of the designs even has a computer programme that permits users to arrive at their own distinctive screen savers.

The quest to be user-friendly has prompted technology to turn towards art…easy to digest in an age when art has graphically made its presence felt in every sphere. But what the conservative art audience finds hard to swallow is that art-makers are increasingly turning towards technology.

Contemporary Indian artists have become so computer-savvy that they regularly conduct their ‘business’ in a virtual world, so it was only a matter of time before this ingenious new tool threatened to make the traditional brush and paint extinct. Now, the only thing that can stop artists from creating paintings whose colour and form can be changed according to the viewer’s mood, is their imagination!

For someone like Arzan Khambatta, technology goes hand in hand with art, as he uses a variety of machines for sculpting. “These are not necessarily power machines, but tools – each one with its own uses,” he explains. “Then comes the balance of the sculpture on its base.” At times, especially when he is creating an optical illusion piece, science and an understanding of physics become imperative. Khambatta, who believes that cars and watches are examples of a successful marriage between art and technology, says, “Some watches are so exquisitely designed, even from within, that it becomes almost necessary to have transparent dials and backs for the wearer/viewer to marvel at these works of art.”

Independent curator, Ranjit Hoskote, picturesquely describes art and technology as twins that have been separated at birth. “They should be reunited,” he advocates. “Art can realise itself better through technology and technology can amplify its significance through art.” Citing the example of Baiju Parthan’s artworks like Code and A Diary of the Inner Cyborg, he observes that Parthan extends his painterly impulse into the realm of cyberspace and virtual reality, playing with gaming environments. In Baiju Parthan: A User’s Manual, Hoskote has written about how the artist’s use of technology allows him to expand his art into an interactive and social space.