elekhlekha อีเหละเขละขละ (Nitcha Fame Tothong & Kengchakaj) is a Thai diaspora, Brooklyn-based collaborative artist practice rooted in research that decodes contested memories and complex histories, focusing on their root in the Southeast Asia context. Their work spans creating with code, algorithms, multimedia, and technology to explore and define decolonized possibilities.
Their work in an intersection of art, culture, music, and technology has earned numerous honors. In 2022, they won the Lumen Prize Gold Award for their first collaborative project, Jitr (จิตร), and have received the Eyebeam Democracy Machine Fellowship (2024) and the Processing Foundation Data Storytelling Fellowship (2025). They were artists-in-residence at Babycastles, the Institute for Electronic Arts, and CultureHub; members of NEW INC, an affiliate of the New Museum, including its Y10 Art & Code and Y11 Extended Realities tracks; and members of LivecodeNYC.
Tothong is an interdisciplinary media artist, coder, and designer. Her work focuses on cross-medium pollination and the juxtaposition of digital/computational and analog that inform each other. Kengchakaj is an award-winning pianist, improviser, synthesist, and Collider Fellow at Lincoln Center. They’re currently based in Occupied Lenapehoking(Brooklyn, NYC), the unceded lands of the Lenni-Lenape and home to many Indigenous peoples past, present, and future.
Contact us: [email protected]
How to pronounce elekhlekha:
elekhlekha (ele _ khe _ kha ).m4a
Photography by Geoff Robertson, shot with his custom-built stroboscopic graffiti machine.
elekhlekha Video Intro from DEMO2024.
elekhlekha Video Intro from DEMO2024.
elekhlekha อีเหละเขละขละ is a collaborative research-based group consisting of Thai diaspora, Bangkok-born, Brooklyn-based artists, Nitcha Tothong (https://nitcha.info/) & Kengchakaj (htt
We are elekhlekha อีเหละเขละขละ, a Brooklyn-based Thai diaspora collective of artists Kengchakaj and Nitcha. Our name—Thai for “dispersed, entropy, and chaotic”—is a strategic refusal to be categorized through a Western lens. We engage in subversive storytelling by exploring non-hegemonic archives, decoding contested memories and complex histories, and unlearning systemic biases.
Our work investigates the political complexity of Southeast Asia, grounding algorithmic experimentation in ancestral knowledge and aural history. We reject the idea that sound cultures are static relics; instead, we integrate generative processes, participatory performance, and community gathering to evolve these lineages. This allows new possibilities to emerge that derail from our own internalized biases as a continuous unlearning process.
In our Network Gong Ensemble series, spanning live coding participatory performance, audiovisual installation, gathering workshop, and digital archive, we draw on the Southeast Asian gong tradition — a form where no single instrument carries the melody alone, and participation is foundational. Driven by the struggle to dismantle the layers of imperialism, patriarchy, and nationalism, we reclaim long-lost ancestral innovations. By merging live coding with oral history, we seek pluralistic futures and unconventional subjectivities—the broad spectrum of expression that should have always been included.
full dossiers are available upon request
Nitcha Tothong (Fame) Interdisciplinary artist, designer, and researcher she/they b.1987 www - nitcha.info / nitchafame.work @ - nitcha_dot_fame_at_gmail_dot_com
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ณิชชา โตทอง (เฟม) ศิลปิน, นักออกแบบ
Kengchakaj (Keng) Improviser, pianist, and electronics experimentalist he/him b.1989 www - kengchalkaj.info @ - hi_at_kengchakaj_dot_info
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เก่งฉกาจ (เก่ง) นักด้นสด, นักเปียโน, และ นักทดลองอิเล็กโทรนิคส์
2026 Shelemay Sound lab • (work-in-progress) Lulled into a dreamy sleep from which there will be no waking up | ******Holden Chapel, Harvard Yard, Boston, US
อวยพรเบิกโรง–Overture ***• Jitr(จิตร)–extended gong(ฆ้อง)ensemble*** | [Speaker Box](<https://speakerboxlive.com/event/%E0%B8%AD%E0%B8%A7%E0%B8%A2%E0%B8%9E%E0%B8%A3%E0%B9%80%E0%B8%9A%E0%B8%B4%E0%B8%81%E0%B9%82%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%87-overture/>), Bangkok, TH
2025 Winch Berlin • Jitr(จิตร)–extended gong(ฆ้อง)ensemble | Kwia, Berlin, DE
[***nodes: i organized by Processing x Artifice x UAAD***](<https://luma.com/node1>) ***• Network Gong Ensemble Archive*** | ******[NYU Tandon @ The Yard](<https://www.google.com/maps/place/NYU+Tandon+@+The+Yard/@40.6998662,-73.9772792,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m6!3m5!1s0x89c25be5f473156d:0xe40eec3971a62822!8m2!3d40.6998662!4d-73.9772792!16s%2Fg%2F11h6909109?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MTAwNC4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D>), Brooklyn, New York, US
[Signal to Noise Opening Weekend](<https://ncm.org.au/exhibitions/signal-to-noise>) ***• Jitr(จิตร)–extended gong(ฆ้อง)ensemble*** | ******[National Communication Museum(NCM)](<https://ncm.org.au/>), Melbourne, Australia
[Surge](<https://dice.fm/event/ryxwnr-surge-w-elekhlekha-marie-lloyd-paspe-sirintip-x-nolan-byrd-duo-climate-cafe-23rd-mar-nublu-new-york-tickets>) ***• Jitr(จิตร)–extended gong(ฆ้อง)ensemble*** | [Nublu](<https://nublu.net/>), New York, US