Online Web Editor Haamid Bala
Srinagar, Oct 31: The Art Gallery at NIFT Srinagar came alive today with “Tilism 2 – Mind-crafted to heART-crafted”, an immersive exhibition that blended multimedia installations, virtual design, storytelling, and live performance into a mesmerizing experience. The show, conceptualized and curated by Arshad M, a renowned Kashmiri artist and faculty member in Fashion Communication at NIFT Srinagar, received wide acclaim from students, visitors, and members of the creative community.
Director NIFT Srinagar Prof. Monika Gupta stressed that “the aim is to give students and opportunities while learning at NIFT as Tilism 2 marks a pioneering initiative across NIFT campuses, being the first exhibition of its kind to merge AI-driven visuals, digital projections, live art, and experiential storytelling within an institutional art gallery space. “
Visitors described it as “a window into the future of creative education” and “a soulful dialogue between technology and humanity.”
The exhibition was the result of a collaborative effort among student teams from multiple departments, including Fashion Communication, Textile Design, Fashion Design, and Accessory Design. Together, they transformed the NIFT art gallery into a dreamlike space where light, shadow, motion, and sound coexisted to explore the theme of how creativity survives and thrives in a machine-led world.
At the core of Tilism 2 lies a profound question — Can technology feel?
Through interactive installations and immersive projections, the show invites viewers to reflect on their relationship with digital media and rediscover the human touch in the creative process.
Speaking at the opening, curator and creative designer Arshad M remarked:
“We are living in times of digital overload where everything is algorithmic. Tilism 2 is an attempt to remind us that what truly defines creativity is not data, but empathy — not automation, but imagination.”
The event was hailed as a major milestone for NIFT Srinagar and a significant leap in design education. It offered students a new kind of exposure — one that transcends conventional classroom learning to embrace cross-disciplinary experimentation and digital storytelling.
Visitors included academics , artists, officials,students and large no of visiting parents from various states praised the initiative as “pioneering in vision and deeply human in message.” Tilism 2 sets a new benchmark for creative pedagogy, especially in how it integrates emerging technology with artistic sensitivity.
The NIFT art gallery saw a large turnout of visitors, including students, faculty, artists, and guests from the design and cultural fraternity. The installations — glowing under moody lights with a backdrop of the moon, shadow play, and ambient sound — left audiences enchanted. Several attendees described the experience as “poetic, immersive, and unlike anything seen before in Kashmir’s design space.”
Tilism 2 reaffirms the evolving role of NIFT Srinagar as a creative hub where tradition meets innovation. By turning the art gallery into an experiential canvas, the exhibition demonstrated how the next generation of designers and artists can use technology not to replace creativity, but to reignite it with heart and meaning.
As the evening closed and the final visitors lingered before the glowing installations, one sentiment echoed through the gallery.
“In the age of artificial intelligence, Tilism 2 reminds us that it is still the human heart that designs the most beautiful worlds.”
