Yashas Shetty

Yashas Shetty is an artist and composer living in Bangalore, India. His works often feature humorous and absurd bricolages and reinterpretations of high-tech artifacts. Shetty's works range from genetically modified organisms to disappearing pop songs to large-scale archives. His work has been shown in numerous exhibitions, including the Taipei Biennale (2012), Ars Electronica, Linz (2012), Fundación Botín, Spain (2013), Science Gallery, Dublin (2014), Haus der Kulturen der Welt (2020). He won prizes at the Ars Electronica Festival, Linz / Austria (2011 and 2012) and at the International Genetically Engineered Machines Competition at MIT (2009 and 2011).

Yashas is one of the founding members of the Center for Experimental Media Art, India's first graduate program in new media art at the Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology. Along with Swiss material scientist Dr. Marc Dusseiller and Spanish artist Andy Gracie, he co-founded the renowned hacker collective Hackteria.

A work realized together with his students on a genetically modified bacterium that smells like rain was awarded an honorary mention in Hybrid Arts at Ars Electronica (2010). Another work depicting a method for detecting genetically modified organisms in the environment was also awarded an honorary mention in the Hybrid Arts section of Ars Electronica (2012).

Yashas Shetty has received fellowships from the Charles Wallace and Inlaks Foundations in India. He is also a fellow at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart, Germany. He is currently the director of ArtScienceBLR, the public laboratory at Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology. Shetty is also the director of the Indian Sonic Research Organization, a community music lab in Bangalore, where he performs, teaches, and collaborates with instrument makers and artists interested in experimental music and sound art by means of workshops and residencies.