“Agents of Malarkey” is a performative project developed by Anish Cherian and Padmanabhan, blending speculative research and sonic world-building that emerges from the absurd and the nonsensical. Where the extraordinary becomes ordinary. Within this theatrical experience, rivers may transform into humans, towering trees might become grass overnight, and beings on Mars embark on the construction of colonies.

Central to "Agents of Malarkey" is the exploration of the bizarre and inexplicable elements of our world, conveyed through poetic narratives, mesmerizing soundscapes, and experimental visuals, inviting viewers to delve into the captivating and whimsical world of malarkey.

We are water and memory is what the body carries,
Like information, like energy. 
Water is memory.

Responding to the insurmountable and collective grief, loss and the heaviness of memory experienced during the afterlife of the pandemic, Water Nodes is a hybrid immersive installation /performance (live +remote) that reminisces cross-cultural, personal, maternal histories inherited/passed on in the body. By evoking family archive photographs, spiritual and mythological references, the performance considers in the quality of water a passage for memories to flow, contain and dissipate.

The basic essence of our project is telling stories about whales highlighting their role in carbon sequestration and creating a positive impact on the climate as a result of whale conservation. Using a format similar to children’s stories, which are laden with moral lessons presented in a non- didactic way, we intent to present these complex concepts to children and adults. Children make sense of the world through these narratives and their perception towards non-human actors in the world is often formed through the stories and experiences they have as young children. We wish to use this affordance to create a new kind of storybook and online narrative that uses the latest in machine learning and Augmented Reality technologies and brings them to life. Through stories told by real-life whale characters, we change the way children learn about animals or perhaps even other topics such as geography

These story narratives are presented in 2 primary formats: an online interactive choice based gameplay stories and an AR book. Interactive gameplay is a powerful and effective channel to enable a massive audience to engage with whales and positively impact their conservation. We want to harness the power of gameplay and social media to attract a broader audience to this cause.

Loss of Horizon & Converging Acts [LoHaCA]is a podcast developed by Anish Cherian [multimedia artist] and Padmanabhan [sound artist] as a digital confluence of conversations between 6 artists geographically separated [from Kashmir, U.P, Karanataka & Telangana] as they engage in a similar act of digging a hole.

Over a period of 10 days, the artists while engaged in the act are provoked to observe, inspect, discover, interact, and imitate non-human animals, insects, tools, and the soil among others in their respective sites.

The podcast becomes a space to imagine a new becoming between these artists as sensorial interactions become a medium for experiencing collective desires. Desiring other planetary forces from the soil.

The podcast is developed within LoHaCA a series of interconnected events by Sujit Mallick [artist/organic farmer] under Five Million Incidents, organized by Goethe Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, and conceived in collaboration with Raqs Media Collective.

In the second decade of the 21st century, a few acts altered our perceived reality causing fractures in the humanist project. The human subject signified by the altruistic machine - the state, the court etc., - became a contentious ground, with its underpinnings on the separation of man from the natural world. The transformation (not merely transfiguration) of the human body or natural being and their becoming have been sites of these fractures, revealing a new system of life beyond the human.
 
What catalysed a transformation which transgressed human?
 
1. Goa amended the preservation of trees act to classify the coconut tree as a kind of grass.
2. the Ganges river became the first non-human entity in India to be granted human rights.
 
The ruptures caused by such incidents have transformed a few trees inside Lodi garden into post-human images. These trees reveal stories and memories of this post-human world, where they are not limited by human understanding and nomenclature.
  
Coming Out Party For The Androgynous Tree, is an audio/music compilation of post-human memories. The trees invite you to witness their transformation, which will be available through the project page but audible only under the shade of these trees. Users are requested to take a walk in the garden, discover these talking trees, witness and embrace a similar transformation.

Designed sound and music for the Brand Film