Etherea
ABOUT
What happens when we look beyond the artificial separation of knowledge? What can we create by connecting that which only seems unconnected? By employing Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to probe the logic of an alternate physics, or by revisiting the idea of Darwinian evolution in a digital landscape?
Project ‘Etherea’, created by Akshika Goel and Abhiraj Mengade, and supported by the Serendipity Arts Virtual Grant 2023, is an interactive phenomenon aimed at this precise experiment, where lines separating knowledge systems are blurred, allowing their logics to bleed into one another.
This project is an interactive multi-media compendium of three distinct ‘episodes’ that use technology to layer and conjoin different concepts from literature and science such that each episode is a thought experiment which pushes one to see the dimension of the unseen, and to imagine the unimagined.
ABOUT THE GRANTEES
Akshika Goel is a multi-disciplinary writer and researcher with a Bachelor’s degree in literature from Miranda House, University of Delhi and is currently pursuing a Master’s in sociology at IIT Bombay. Employing diverse methods as modes of research, she aspires to interrogate heritage, living traditions, sounds, and images as archives of knowledge in her critical practice.
Abhiraj Mengade is a final-year Computer Science Engineering student at NITK, concurrently pursuing Data Science at IITM. While taking an interest in the industry, explored while interning at Oracle, Hexagon AB, and Stanford-backed Deep Forest Sciences, he is also drawn to art, literature, and cinema. He has participated in prestigious events like Polkadot Hackathon, Paris 2023 and ETH, India 2022.
APPLICATION PROCESS
Individuals who are Indian nationals residing in India, or collectives whose members are Indian nationals residing in India. Individuals with relevant academic qualifications; or who are already engaged in research, with access to private or public collections; or who have professional experience in writing/publishing; or activists with years of engagement/experience in their chosen fields.
Deadline for Applications: 17 May 2020
Duration of Grant: One year | 1 July 2020 – 30 June 2021
Grant Amount: Up to INR 3,00,000
Grant Deliverables- Report: A detailed report (of not less than 7,500 words) on the research undertaken, to be submitted at the conclusion of the grant period. An interim mid-term report of 1000-1500 words. Suggested appendices, in addition to the report:
- Interviews of persons relevant to the research (to be submitted in text form in English)
- Translations into English of select texts used in the research
- Bibliography of published and unpublished sources used in the research
- Timeline of the periodical/writer/subject under study
- Original, digitised, or photocopied material collected during research
- Presentation/Workshop.
- A public presentation of the research, to be organised by AAA in collaboration with other institutions and organisations (venue and dates to be confirmed)
- A cover letter with your name, postal address, email address, telephone number (if available), along with the names and email addresses of two referees with experience in the area of your proposed research
- A CV no more than two pages/750 words in length
- Project Proposal: An outline of your research project, which should include: (i) A brief description in no more than 1,500 words of the intended research and its components (ii) Names of sources, libraries/archives/collections, and interlocutors your research will focus on (iii) A tentative timeline for the project’s realisation (iv) No more than five images of proposed research material in a single PDF file (iv) no more than five images of proposed research material in a single pdf file
- Budget: A breakdown of estimated costs for your project based on your proposal and timeline. The proposed budget will not be considered final until vetted by AAA & SSAF in consultation with the selected grantee before the commencement of the grant. be organised by AAA in collaboration with other institutions and organisations (venue and dates to be confirmed)