Art reflects the time the artists live in. And it is not surprising that creative people are exploring technology to make works of art. Digital art or computer-aided imagery is a medium that artists in India have been using since the early 90s. Jaideep Mehrotra, Anjolie Ela Memon and Akbar Padmsee are some of the names one can rettle off when speaking of leading artists making computer-aided works, though each one of them is doing different kinds of work using different technologies. In its infancy, digital art - computer-aided imagery created not for the purpose of illustration or commercial endeavours but for its own sake - is not yet to an accepted form of art. It is a costly medium, with few avenues for exhibition, few buyers for this kind of art-deterred by the possibility of easy reproduction, or simply lack of awareness of the ever evolving technology, are some of the sbstacles at the moment, apart from the technical difficulties of outputting and so on.

While it is in flux, and an emerging trend, yet to be recognised, it is interesting to see how people from backgrounds other than art are making a foray in to this field to explore its diversity. One of them is Ankur Gupta who comes from the management and pharmacy setting. He chanced upon this medium in 87 while pursuing his job as a product manager. Ankur got his hands on an Apple Macintosh and soon started experimenting with the medium.

 Gupta has designed calendars in the past and now has exhibition of his creations at Nehru Centre. Though this is not his occupation and full-time activity, Gupta says, with digital art one has make a dent in world of art.

Most of his images are non representational patterns, besides images of Ganeshas and the Buddhist mandala pattern. His forte lies is in the use of fractals in which specific patterns repeat in a given space, though without repeating in form. Gupta has tried to attach meaning to the patterns he has made. However on the whole, the colour scheme lacks aesthetic value. The images look like illustration for a company's brochure, meaningless rangoli patterns or Diwali Cards.

Whether any kind of digitally created imagery can be called art is an issue that art connoisseurs are going to face in the times to come. But there will surely be a lot of experimentation in the future.