“Mapping the Digital Arts Industry in Pakistan” presented by Rhodes and Ul-Assar

In 2023, Lahore Digital Arts Festival (LDF) conducted a landmark research project, Mapping the Digital Arts in Pakistan (MDAP), in response to a need to understand and support the nascent digital arts industry in the country more formally. While there are any number of gaming and animation studios and a boom in emerging digital artists, the indus-try remains nascent. Digital arts are still rare in gallery spaces, and it is only after 2020 that the first NFT/digital arts-based exhibitions have taken place. The industry represents excellent potential, especially for young people and minorities; however, there has been little attempt to study and understand the scope of the industry and the challenges facing its future growth. Here, the archive in question does not refer to specific artworks but instead documents the current context of the digital arts industry within a particular region. This paper presents a potential route for such a project by outlining the research and methodology and explaining the main findings and recommendations.