Project Evoloka
by Shantanu Mishra
Navi Mumbai
Project Description
Project Evoloka reimagines the future with DIY, jugaad, and rebellion. It’s raw, desi futurism-where scraps become stories and the forgotten build the world.
Expected Impact
Project Evoloka reimagines India’s cultural landscape by blending jugaad, grassroots creativity, and speculative storytelling into a powerful artistic movement. It challenges the Western-centric narrative of futuristic aesthetics and technology, offering a desi, DIY alternative rooted in local culture, struggles, and resilience. By using scrap materials, welding masks, and everyday objects as tools of rebellion, Evoloka honors the makers, welders, and underdogs, the often-unseen people who build the real India. Globally, it sparks dialogue on what a non-Western future can look like. Locally, it empowers the youth, the small-town creators, and the marginalised to see art and technology as tools for change. I hope to inspire a shift in how we perceive art - not as something exclusive, but as a way to express survival, resistance, and imagination. Evoloka is a call to action: question the system, embrace imperfection, and build your own future from the ground up.
Applicant Background
I am a multidisciplinary artist and digital storyteller with experience in 3D modeling, VFX, and speculative art. My past work includes building DIY VR headsets from scrap materials, creating conceptual sculptures, and designing futuristic artifacts inspired by Indian culture and cyberpunk themes. I have worked on major film projects like Dune: Part Two and The Last of Us, Kalki, Nimona etc. where I gained experience in world-building, visual storytelling, and creating immersive, cinematic worlds. My art practice merges speculative fiction, grassroots creativity, and technology, using discarded materials and found objects to build new narratives. I have exhibited work in Homegrown India and built a community of followers who resonate with my DIY approach. This blend of professional 3D experience, grassroots engineering, and a passion for cultural commentary gives me the unique ability to bring Project Evoloka to life as a raw, desi, speculative universe.
Resources Needed
- Funding
- Mentorship
- Visibility
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