Naya (Hindi): new; fresh.

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The transition from Postmodernism culminated in a new global metropolis, an era defined by the acceleration of globalisation post-90s and the complete ubiquity of the internet. This connectivity broke down geographical boundaries and challenged the outdated Western-centric narratives, shifting the focus from internal critique to active intervention in socio-political spaces. At the same time, contemporary art practice became less about a single style or medium and more about a context-specific, often participatory, response to real-time global events, from mass migration to transnational politics. This environment demanded that the artist engage not just with history, but with the immediate complexities of a planetary consciousness.

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This new global reality necessitated a parallel dematerialisation of art as an object. Following the trajectory set by Conceptualism, contemporary art transfigured to non-physical and time-based forms, allowing the artistic idea or information itself to become the primary medium. The subsequent recognition of digital, screen-based, and virtual art moved these practices from the periphery to the centre of socio-political discourse. This critical shift affirmed that authentic artistic experience could be generated, documented, and distributed instantaneously, thereby bypassing traditional physical gallery constraints and eliminating the geographic limitations that once dictated the structure of the global art world.

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In this epoch, digital technology—specifically the internet and public platforms—serves as the ultimate site for cross-cultural and individual mediation. The screen operates as a fluid, boundary-less canvas (that doubles up as a digital billboard or a data point) where diverse cultural inputs, personal narratives, and collective histories collide without the traditional filtering mechanisms of colonial-era institutions. By leveraging these digital spaces to facilitate a hyper-hybridity, I reflect how the postcolonial subject, in a global order, constantly navigates, remixes, and mediates information from vastly disparate origins. The internet is, therefore, not merely a distribution tool but the virtual, public extension of the "third space" where identity is now perpetually created, exchanged, and performed.