TECH. ARTS. COMMUNITY.
Malvika Jha
Artist, Curator and Innovator
Malvika Jha is a contemporary artist-curator specializing in performance, imagemaking, and experimental video. Her practice engages with making as a form of active research. Through her work, Malvika seeks to subvert her immediate reality, creating interventions that challenge and reshape visual perception. Her approach is deliberate and measured, grounded in thoroughly researched material that allows her to engage deeply with the immediate realities around her. She acts as a mediator; intensifies and interacts with these realities, weaving them into her work.
Challenges
10
Gods Must Be Crazy: An Ode
For this challenge, we had invited the fellows to bring their final projects to life through the powerful mediums of either a short film or a graphic novel. Malvika explores the de-extinction of the wooly mammoth in her short film. It is a short documentary style video which examines the reasons for the reintroduction of the woolly mammoth and the questions arising due to it.
8
Challenge 8 was a fun exercise in which the fellows generated interactive AI personas using the Gooey.AI copilot tool. Malvika’s bot Sohini was crafted as the God of Confusion—an AI deity who speaks in riddles and multicultural codes. By 3050, she endures as the forest’s enigmatic guardian, wielding ambiguity to protect the land and those resilient enough to outlast her.
6
For this challenge, we wanted the fellows to create supporting characters that would inhabit their envisioned future world. Malvika created the supporting characters of Battu and Chal Kapat.
5
Fellows developed characters who would live in their imagined future worlds. Malvika created the character of Sohini.
4
For this challenge, we wanted fellows to continue building on their explored futures, focusing on world building. We wanted them to visualise it as the opening scene of a sci-fi film, where the focus is on the setting rather than the characters. 5 to 6 frames were created using Gooey's Animation Generator in draft mode (2 FPS). Malvika has captured a wide-angle shot of a futuristic house nestled within the heart of a massive tree.The house has a rustic setting inside with terracotta tiles and earth-toned furniture.Soft sunlight filters through the canopy, casting golden halos across the glowing structure.
3
For this challenge, we had asked the fellows to illustrate their peers’ predictions for the future. Malvika illustrated the prediction that in the future, forests will be shaped by technological advancements, conservation efforts, and community-driven initiatives, ensuring their survival and expansion despite climate challenges.
2
We asked the fellows to explore what the future would look like. We also asked them to forecast a series of predictions for the next few years, with a timeline of no more than 25 years ahead.Malvika made the following predictions about the future. By 2035, genetically engineered woolly mammoths may be reintroduced into the Siberian tundra as part of the "Pleistocene Park" efforts. The goal is to restore grassland ecosystems, which could slow permafrost melt and reduce methane emissions. By 2045, if successful, similar projects could reintroduce lost species like the dodo, thylacine (Tasmanian tiger), or passenger pigeon, potentially transforming ecosystems worldwide.By 2030, we might see the first large-scale solar geoengineering tests—injecting aerosols into the stratosphere to reflect sunlight and cool the Earth. This could be controversial due to unpredictable side effects, such as altered monsoon patterns. By 2040, artificial carbon-capture forests powered by synthetic biology may help remove CO₂ directly from the atmosphere. By 2050, the fate of the polar ice caps will depend on global climate policies in the 2020s and 2030s. If current emission trends continue, sea levels could rise by 1–2 meters, causing mass migrations from coastal cities like Mumbai, New York, and Amsterdam.
