Raqs Media Collective
The work of New Delhi-based Raqs Media Collective (Jeebesh Bagchi, Monica Narula, Shuddhabrata Sengupta) is located at the intersections of contemporary art, historical enquiry, philosophical speculation, research and theory, often taking the form of installations, online and offline media objects, performances and encounters. Raqs has exhibited widely, including at Documenta, the Venice, Istanbul, Taipei, Liverpool, Shanghai, Sydney and Sao Paulo Biennales. They curated the Yokohama Triennale 2020 around an axis of toxicity, care and the luminosity of friendship, and they are part – both from India and Nigeria – of the World Weather Network, an artistic response to global climate shock.
For their new work ‘The Waves Are Rising’ at Sea Change 2023, an animated augmented reality (AR) wave on a large scale LED screen will be superimposed upon live video feed video of the still waters of The Royal Docks, filling the vista of the usually calm waterscape with an animated surging wave as well as detritus and data from the high seas.
As fewer people travel by ship now, we are now more divorced from understanding its turbulence and power, which is exacerbated by climate change. The augmented reality wave will reference this untamed nature of the deep sea, the rising seas due to global warming, the waves of capital, trade and immigration brought to the Royal Docks during its history as well as wave patterns in print and fabrics and the wave in art history and popular culture (from Hokusai’s famous ‘Great Wave’ print, to its reproduction as an apple emoji).