TECH. ARTS. COMMUNITY.
Trisha Dhar Malik
Writer, Actor and Dreamer
Trisha Dhar Malik is a writer and artist based in Mumbai, India. She has acted in several plays during her time studying in Canada, including "Water, Baby!" which she also produced and wrote. With a combined Honours in English and Creative Writing from Dalhousie University, she is now back home in Mumbai, navigating what it means to be twenty-four and know nothing.
Challenges
10
What Did We Forget?
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. Trisha’s graphic novel is set in Bombay, 2050 where art is disappearing. Sheila K, a writer and artist, is holding on; creating, feeling, remembering. With her friend Arjun, she builds a world that resists the quiet takeover of AI. But when Arjun brings home Rayan 1902—a perfect robot companion—their bond begins to shift.
9
For challenge 9, the fellows presented a pitch deck of their visual narratives. These narratives, set in 2050, address a conflict in an ideal future and its resolution. The pitch will serve as a storyboard for the final project, presented as either a short film or graphic novel. Trisha’s project is titled What Did We Forget? It is a story about Sheila K., a writer and artist based in Bombay, 2050. It shows how Sheila’s life is thrown into disarray with the arrival of Rayan, a perfect robot companion.
8
Challenge 8 was a fun exercise in which the fellows generated interactive AI personas using the Gooey.AI copilot tool. Trisha’s bot Sheila K. is an artist in a world that is increasingly online. She is grappling with what it means to make art in this context. Through her bot, Trisha has explored the characteristics of the protagonist of her imagined worlds.
7
After an engaging workshop with Nina Sabnani, the fellows applied their imagination to craft a narrative using five images that Nina gave as prompts. Trisha’s story Payal, One Day highlights themes of wonder, companionship, and the quiet magic of finding one’s place in the world amidst chaos and beauty.
6
For this challenge, we wanted the fellows to create supporting characters that would inhabit their envisioned future world. Trisha created supporting characters of Arjun and Rayan.Arjun R is Sheila’s best friend. He is a painter, a profession that has become rather rare. He is also an AI researcher, which he does to support himself financially. Rayan 1902 is the robot companion of Arjun, created as part of the AI research he conducts.
5
Fellows developed characters who would live in their imagined future worlds. Trisha created the character of Sheila K., an artist who spends her time trying to humanize her world once again. She seeks to reimagine it, bringing back the art and warmth she feels have been lost. Through her artwork and writing, she longs to create spaces of community and love in an environment that is rapidly becoming more alien.
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). Trisha has presented Mumbai in 2050. It is clean and developed with sky scrapers, along with a running metro system. There's a sense of cleanliness and calm in the city.
3
For this challenge, we had asked the fellows to illustrate their peers’ predictions for the future. Trisha illustrated Devanshi’s prediction about a hyper-individualistic future where the landscape of cities has changed.Robots and AI now appear on the streets just like bystanders we pass.
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. Trisha made the following predictions about the future. In 25 years, we will be able to see many more physical manifestations of the climate crisis. To be Mumbai-specific; although connectivity within the city may have improved, I believe that a significant portion of South Bombay will be submerged under water. Major lobbying and protesting to ensure that the government (hopefully slightly less right leaning then, haha) makes tangible strides towards climate change concerns. More specifically, lobbying to protect and care for our mangroves—that help in stabilising floods, protecting shorelines and more. Something we will really need–with the help of the very thing we are destroying–is a radical going-back-to nature.
