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 at the 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 and the Institute for Electronic Arts; members of NEW INC and its Y10 Art & Code and Y11 Extended Realities tracks; members of LivecodeNYC; and 2023–2024 Artists-in-Residence at CultureHub.
Their works have also been presented worldwide. Recent and upcoming performances and exhibitions include: Barbican Centre, London(2022); Wonderfruit Festival, Pattaya(2022-2024); Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C. (2023); Harvestworks Art & Technology Program, New York (2023); Rochester Contemporary Art Center, New York (2024); DEMO Festival, New York (2024, 2025); Rhizome World, New York (2025); Lincoln Center, New York (2025); Goethe-Institut Thailand (2025); Center for Performance Research, New York (2025); the National Communication Museum, Melbourne (2025); and Bangkok Kunsthalle, Bangkok (2026), among others.
Nitcha is also a former artist-in-residence at Banff Centre and The Sitka Center for Art and Ecology. Kengchakaj is a Jerome Hill Artist Fellow and former Lincoln Center Collider Fellow. 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 (https://kengchakaj.info/)
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 through 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) sound practitioner and improviser he/him b.1989 www - kengchalkaj.info @ - hi_at_kengchakaj_dot_info
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เก่งฉกาจ (เก่ง) นักปฏิบัติการเสียง, นักด้นสด
2026 Fellows • NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Digital/Electronic Arts
2025 Fellows • Processing Foundation Fellowship Program: Data Storytelling
2024 Fellows • Eyebeam Democracy Machine Fellows 2024
2026, May-Jul Artist-in-Residence • Bangkok Kunsthalle, Bangkok, TH
2024-2025 Members • NEW INC Y11 (Extended Realities track by New Museum in collaboration with Onassis ONX)