magazine
Cultural insights and stories from diverse voices across our global creative community
latest articles
Stories and perspectives from our network.
How to be a brand that people want to work with
Creators can now go freelance, work in-house, or build their own thing. For brands, attracting great talent means giving them a reason to choose you.
auster
4 min read
You don’t have to constantly create to be an artist
For years, I thought creativity was something I had to chase. But traveling as a nomadic artist taught me the opposite.
Nikki Sharma
5 min read
Nature has something to say, literally
We spoke to Indonesian electronic duo Bottlesmoker about turning plant signals into music.
auster
5 min read
Employment in the time of situationships
As if being ghosted by potential love interests wasn’t bad enough, now we’re getting ghosted by potential employers too.
Ritwika Dasgupta
6 min read
latest interviews
Conversations with the auster team.
The voices of the future: An insight into India's top three end-of-year art shows
Taking time to hear what students are saying and making is a necessary and important way of analyzing our own constantly fraught futures.
Mahika Gautam
9 min read
Reading art is a matter of context
What we see and how we perceive things is influenced by our knowledge and beliefs, forming a connection between what we see and ourselves.
Juhi Mathur
7 min read
Inside Fresh Produce: Made, unmade, remade
Method Delhi’s opening show of 50 emerging artists, shaped with auster
auster
5 min read
Culture took over the court at BudX NBA House
The BudX NBA House was beyond an ordinary occasion. It was a cultural intervention that was designed, built, and activated to explore the significance of basketball in India.
auster
3 min read
Handmade networks: How communities bridge the gap between access and culture
When official channels fall short or aren’t accessible to certain communities, people build their own systems. Files are passed by hand, novels are sent through messaging apps, and networks are carved out, however small or improvised.
Belinda Seppings
5 min read
On reimagining Moroccan heritage with Karim Doukkana
More than a shop, less than a gallery, Doukkana operates in the in-between: a platform where objects and stories from North Africa and beyond are reimagined and shared.
auster
9 min read
Under the skin of things: A conversation in context
On 23rd August 2025, Lovable Rebels saw the opening of its first curated group show, “Under the Skin of Things."
auster
3 min read
Against the flat web: Power, politics, and the uneven internet
For years, platforms sold us on the dream of universality: one click, one world, everything at our fingertips. But that dream was never evenly distributed.
Belinda Seppings
4 min read
The politics of care: How a fragile world is reshaping the art world
Since the pandemic, our shared systems have shown their limits: hospitals stretched, supply chains fractured, transport delayed. The world that once moved at a frictionless pace has slowed, revealing how much depends on the unseen labor of upkeep. Care today feels like a framework that keeps things from falling apart.
Belinda Seppings
5 min read
The subculture paradox: When everything is available, what remains ours?
Subculture R&D is a content series that aims to make sense of how India protects its cultural diversity, and in its way, turns that into a subculture in the global lens.
auster
8 min read
Auster and the art of collaboration in an age of anxiety
auster put an indie band from the suburbs of Humayunpur, a vinyl DJ from Himachal and an established author travelling from Holland together on stage for a year-end special.
Sarthak Sharma
5 min read
On dualities and joy as our common heritage with Shreya Josh
Shreya Josh AKA Paradise Tender shares how she navigates the maze that is being a multidisciplinary artist and turns chaos into joy.
auster
8 min read
What do geometric shapes mean when inked on the skin?
Long before tattoos were symbols of rebellion or fashion statements, they were sacred, medicinal, and embedded in ritual.
auster
6 min read
Creatives can’t be entrepreneurs without infrastructure
Creative work can't be sustainable in systems that treat creators as disposable. If we want a culture that challenges the status quo, we need structures that allow creative careers to exist beyond independent wealth or burnout.
Belinda Seppings
6 min read
Patterns of KR Market: How years of labor shape color systems
At KR Market, one of Bangalore’s oldest flower markets, color appears abundant, almost incidental. But on closer observation, it reveals itself as something assembled over time.
auster
3 min read
Nambu wool: The Himalayan thread that holds Ladakh together
A collaboration between visual communication expert Ayush Batra and heritage brand 2112 Saldon reveals what slow fashion really means when it comes from the mountains.
auster
6 min read
The anatomy of an altar
An altar is a focal point of your spirituality and maybe a reflection of your most whimsical self.
auster
6 min read
Creators are done waiting
We're living in precarious times. What we need is something that offers continuity. Not a promise of anything grand, but concrete ways forward.
auster
6 min read
Pulse Tropicál: An experiment on the dancefloor
Pulse Tropicál was an experiment designed to test one idea: that Delhi's dance-starved youth would show up for Latin music. And show up they did.
auster
2 min read
Decay has a look. This EP gives it a sound.
Something is always happening just below the surface. Multimedia artists I7HVN and Garima Katiya spent months figuring out what that is.
auster
6 min read
Is print dead? Depends who you ask.
Pooja Lucie Willmann, founder of Taara Magazine, thinks the more time we spend online, the more we crave something tangible to hold.
auster
6 min read
How to get involved with auster
Everything at auster is designed to work together, one thing building on the next. Here's where to start.
auster
3 min read
On sound and healing with Azumi Fabienne
Our new series with sound healer Azumi Fabienne features sessions using sound and voice to help creatives slow down and create from a fuller place.
auster
9 min read
Is fulfillment still a thing in this economy?
Self-actualization isn’t part of the traditional framework. It was assumed to follow automatically once the external markers were in place. It doesn't.
auster
7 min read
How to build taste through typography with extroo
To develop a good taste for type, graphic designer extroo says you have to learn the language first through research, visual exposure, and context.
auster
6 min read
The architecture of bias: Confronting power dynamics in creative spaces
This piece began as a simple question I kept circling: Why, in a field built on expression, do women still feel silenced?
Aditi A
9 min read
How to integrate AI into your workflow responsibly with Yashna
It’s important to approach AI with care. Responsible use means limiting generations, crediting tools and collaborators, and being mindful of its impact.
auster
4 min read
How to balance algorithms and intuition when curating music
In an era where a song can go from underground to TikTok-trending overnight, the idea of taste is getting complicated.
auster
9 min read
The Anti-Dream Project: An exploration of creative work beyond visibility, marketing, and branding
Today, dreaming is no longer just about possibility. It’s about performance. The dream must be visible, monetizable, continuously updated.
Eva Gill
8 min read
The tortured artist is a myth (and a gendered one)
How has this myth shaped our ideas of genius, erased the labor behind it, and narrowed our definition of “real” art?
Agata Bendik
5 min read
How to use the internet to create with intention
If you have 247 saved articles and a lingering feeling that you're supposed to be making something, I think I’ve got some thoughts to share.
Garima Katiya
7 min read
Patronage as cultural power
Artistic prizes backed by luxury conglomerates actively rewrite who gets seen, who gets supported and which narratives enter the global canon.
Pooja Lucie Willmann
5 min read
On art as an ecological process with Manu Binny George
Manu Binny George, the recipient of the first Auster Fund, shares how care, patience, and impermanence inform his practice.
auster
12 min read
How to style a shoot on a tight budget
For Karan, stylist, photographer, and creative director, styling is all about story and precision.
auster
5 min read
Why every artist should document their work (and how to start today)
Here’s how you can transform scattered images and memories into an organized body of work using tools you probably already have.
Apoorva Gohad
13 min read
On building futures from scrap with TheGreydient
Project Evoloka transforms scrap into machines that act as both social critique and blueprints for alternative futures.
auster
7 min read
The creative’s exit: When to walk away from the “great opportunity”
The only path to sustainable success comes from discernment: learning to recognize and refuse transactional relationships that threaten to drain our creative reserves.
Hannah Nicolé Tubbs
4 min read
Art in the time of algorithms
More than deciding what we see online, algorithms now also quietly decide what gets created.
Sanaya Sah
5 min read
How to document culture without getting lost in the noise
SlideshowEveryday (SSE) is a storytelling-driven archive project exploring how culture, creativity, and memory collide.
auster
11 min read
The beauty of being multi-dimensional
You owe it to yourself to explore this little thing called life. Find your limits and then break it.
Muskan Goel
4 min read
A Second Life: Third World Project on making the most of what already exists
In a world obsessed with novelty, A Second Life makes a case for continuity.
auster
7 min read
Attention isn’t enough: Can the Global South turn visibility into power?
What does the world see when it looks South, a muse, a marketplace, or a maker?
Megha Sharma
7 min read
Welcome to our bazaar
We want this to be a space for all kinds of creatives to monetize their work and make it accessible to everyone.
auster
2 min read
Kill Buddha: How an encounter with a Zen kōan changed my life forever
The goal of a kōan is to wear one’s reasoning down and function as a tool of insight, like an ethereal light at the end of the tunnel.
Pratik Shah
7 min read
On Dial-An-Ancestor and speaking to the future with Tamika Abaka-Wood
We sat down with Tamika, the creative soul behind Dial-An-Ancestor, a project that delves into the intricate ways human cultures connect and transform.
auster
12 min read
The distinguishing factor? Taste.
Ever since OpenAI burst onto the scene at the end of 2022, discussions around AI have been heated to say the least.
auster
5 min read
What moves, remains: Archiving culture through dance
How do we make something ancient feel familiar again? For Aneesha Grover, the answer lives in the body. In movement. In silent acts of return.
auster
4 min read
On nurturing online communities with Robin Nguyen
Art takes on meaning when it is shared, when it connects with others.
auster
3 min read
On navigating creative struggles with Federica Girola
Creative work today comes with both freedom and pressure.
auster
4 min read
On designing a platform for creatives with Ashrant Bhartia
Business and creativity might seem like two worlds apart. But for Ash, auster’s founder, these two forces work synergistically, with one activating the other’s full potential when combined.
auster
3 min read
Culture isn’t a moodboard
We see the world and ourselves through stories. But when content is churned out faster than we can process it, there’s very little to hold onto.
auster
4 min read
The 3 principles guiding one of India’s first creator-led grants
For many Indian creators, access to funding remains a major barrier.
auster
6 min read
On defining taste beyond algorithms with Arry Asiddao
When you’re chronically online as a creative, it’s almost a given that you’re going to experience an identity crisis at some point. Or an artist’s block, impostor syndrome, burnout.
auster
5 min read