Lahore transforms into a living canvas of digital arts

LAHORE:

Lahore's cultural heart beat to the rhythm of technology and imagination from November 6 to 9, as the city hosted the fourth edition of the Lahore Digital Arts Festival (LDAF).

Titled 'Breathing Algorithms', the festival drew international artists from France, Canada, the UK, Iran, and Denmark, transforming venues including the Alliance Française de Lahore, Aangun Cultural Centre, R Space, Alhamra Mall Road, and Beaconhouse National University into laboratories of digital innovation.

The event highlighted the power of art to inspire empathy, care, and environmental consciousness while reaffirming Lahore's position as a hub for emerging digital culture.

Co-curated by Najamul Assar and Sarah Rajper, and presented in collaboration with Novembre Numerique, the French Embassy in Pakistan, and Unesco, the LDF reimagined algorithms not as cold codes but as living systems capable of connecting people, ideas, and communities.

The festival sought to demonstrate that technology, when harnessed thoughtfully, can foster dialogue rather than division. "This exhibition reflects how artists across borders are using digital media not only to critique systems of power but also to envision futures shaped by collaboration, care, and ecological consciousness," said Najamul Assar, Founding Curator of the LDF.

The exhibition and its accompanying public programmes took place across multiple venues in Lahore, offering audiences diverse entry points to engage with digital art and its societal implications.

Among the standout works was 'Airborne Memory', created by Lahore-based artists Fajr Faisal and Huzaifa Ahmad. The immersive installation visualised air quality data from 2020 to 2025, prompting audiences to reflect on the shared responsibility of the environment.

"It's a reminder of how the air we breathe holds traces of our choices and shared responsibilities," the artists told Pakistan TV Digital.

International participants contributed installations, video works, digital performances, and interactive experiences that explored intersections of artificial intelligence, climate change, and cultural identity.

French artist Mikhail Margolis praised the festival's scale and organisation, calling it "much better than many festivals I've attended elsewhere" and describing his invitation to Lahore as "unexpected but delightful."

Christina Menegazzi, Unesco's culture and heritage expert, emphasised the festival's wider significance. "Access to culture is a human right. It's particularly important here in Pakistan, not just for artists but for every human being to remember that art nourishes the soul and connects us to each other," she said.

Throughout its four-day run, the LDF blurred the boundaries between art, science, and society. Interactive installations encouraged audiences to engage with pressing issues such as environmental sustainability, human connection, and technological ethics.

The festival demonstrated that digital innovation can foster understanding, empathy, and creativity rather than alienation. The festival also built on the momentum of the 2025 AI Action Summit in France, highlighting the transformative role of artificial intelligence in shaping societies, cultures, and creative futures.

As AI becomes increasingly embedded in daily life—from predictive algorithms to collaborative creativity—it raises questions about justice, equity, and sustainability, all of which demand critical artistic inquiry.

In parallel, the world continues to grapple with the escalating climate crisis, particularly in countries like Pakistan, where urban centres such as Lahore struggle under recurring smog and environmental degradation.

The city's worsening air quality is not only a public health crisis but also a mirror reflecting structural inequalities, ecological apathy, and gendered vulnerabilities. 'Breathing Algorithms' presented a timely intervention, inviting artists, technologists, and audiences to imagine future where technology, art, and ethics converge for sustainable and inclusive change.

The festival explicitly explored how AI intersects with climate justice and gendered experiences. Through curated exhibitions, residency exchanges, and public programs, the LDF posed critical questions: how can artists use AI to critique environmental collapse?

it also asks as to what new visual languages emerge when gender, climate, and AI intersect in digital storytelling; and can algorithms be programmed to care, and how might speculative art confront smog, displacement, and planetary precarity. These thematic concerns guided the creation of new works and opened space for public reflection.

As climate change threatens both tangible and intangible cultural heritage, the LDF positioned digital art as a tool for resistance and preservation. Pollution, displacement, and ecological degradation erode physical spaces, communal memory, and traditional knowledge.

By harnessing AI and creative technologies, the festival highlighted opportunities to document loss, reimagine futures, and cultivate care, inclusion, and environmental justice.

Artists participating in the festival included Aamina Hashmi, Areesha Khuwaja, Bahman Fakouri, Fajr Faisal, Hamza Bajwa, Haris Hidayatullah, Huzaifa Ahmad, Isabelle Arvers, John Desnoyers-Stewart, M4HK, Megan Smith, Mikhail Margolis, Miraal Habib, Mishaim Gardezi, Muhammad Bux, Samina Kausar Ansari, Ujala Khan, and Zuha Farooq.

The presenting team comprised co-curators Najamul Assar and Sarah Rajper, with assistant curators Mishaim Gardezi and Zainab Amir. By the conclusion of the festival, Lahore emerged not just as a host city but as a living canvas where imagination, art, and digital innovation converged.

'Breathing Algorithms' demonstrated that even in a world increasingly shaped by data and algorithms, there remains space for human reflection, care, and creativity. The festival left audiences with a clear message: technology and art are not opposed to humanity—they can nurture empathy, inspire action, and shape a more sustainable, equitable, and imaginative future.

In its blending of local and global perspectives, digital art and AI, environmental awareness and cultural reflection, the fourth LDF reinforced Pakistan's growing role on the international stage of digital culture. Lahore, through this festival, became a space where technology is not just a tool but a medium for connection, understanding, and creative exploration.

'Breathing Algorithms' ran from November 6 to 9, 2025, inviting audiences to experience interactive, thought-provoking, and socially engaged digital artworks while prompting critical reflection on technology, climate, and the ethics of innovation in contemporary society.

(WITH INPUT FROM APP)