The 2023 exhibition Synchronised Spectrum: How Bees See Flowers brought new-media art, biology and Hyderabad’s cultural heritage together at Goethe-Zentrum.
Created by Mehdi Saajid, Trilok Chander and Tanvir Nagore, the exhibition used kinetic sculpture, sensors, robotics and artificial intelligence.
Becoming a bee through interactive technology
A wall of illuminated floral structures simulated the mosaic vision produced by the thousands of lenses in a bee’s compound eyes.
Because bees see ultraviolet patterns invisible to humans, the installation attempted to translate another species’ perception into a human-scale experience.
A large LED display tracked visitors’ hand movements, allowing them to move between digital flowers and imitate cross-pollination.
Robotic machines generated patterns based on the mathematical symmetry found in plants.
Ninja-Bee moving between two Hyderabads
The artists also created Niloufer, a fictional superhero from the Old City who studies Unani medicine and draws her powers from bees.
Alongside her companion Mrinal, Ninja-Bee moved through images of old and new Hyderabad.
Floral motifs connected the project with Badshahi Ashurkhana, Deccan household textiles, traditional medicine and other parts of the city’s tangible and intangible heritage.
AI-assisted paintings examined changes in politics, identity and women’s freedom.
Synchronised Spectrum used technology without treating the city’s older culture as an obstacle to innovation.
Its installations argued that Hyderabad’s scientific and digital future could develop through renewed attention to local architecture, medicine, design and the ecological intelligence carried by flowers and pollinators.