Aastha Gupta

This Foundation Project implemented by IFA under Productions is a speculative non-fiction, an exercise in world-building, examining alternate realities and new mythologies titled SuperOrganism. The outcome of this project will be a book – printed and bound, illustrations: prints and paintings, and an audio-visual installation. The print edition will use story (world-building) as a medium, interspersed with academic writing, illustrating the characters of the Minstrel, a wandering storyteller, and Celeste, a modern-day perfumer. The installation will draw upon stories of both the characters and create a participatory experience for the viewer. Both together and apart, the two works will explore identity, belonging, language and community. Aastha Gupta is the Coordinator of this project. 

Aastha Gupta is an artist, designer, researcher-writer, and a filmmaker. She completed her MFA from Haute Ècole d’Art et de Design in 2025. Her existing practice is multidisciplinary and spans a range of media. She has been interested in the role of language in shaping identity—and vice versa—and has more recently expanded into exploring the role of language and media in the larger act of world-building as a metaphysical activity. She has been part of many grants and residencies - Royal OverSeas League (London) x Art House in Wakefield, UK 2023. Futura Tropica Netroots Grant, Eyebeam Institute 2021, and RISD fellowship, Rhode Island School of Design, US 2022. Given her expertise, she is best placed to be the Project Coordinator of this Foundation Project of IFA.

For this project, the fundamental premise for visualisation is – If human beings were capable of true empathy, as a physical force - as in an interconnected SuperOrganism – would we be capable of transcending constructs as race, caste, nationalities, ethnicities, genders, sexualities and other ways in which people are ‘othered’? Aastha will delve into an exercise of world-building, examining alternate realities and new mythologies by interspersing storytelling and academic writing. The work will explore the lives of the characters of the Minstrel, a wandering storyteller, and Celeste, a modern-day perfumer, combining multiple themes like identity, belonging, language and community – with themes that are pressing in current times – those of belief and empathy in an increasingly polarised world that is also affected by overconsumption and ecological damage at an unprecedented scale. 

The outcome of this project will be a book – printed and bound, illustrations: prints and paintings, which will also appear in the book, and an audio-visual installation. The Project Coordinator's deliverables to IFA along with the final report will be documentation materials from the project, the book and copies of illustrations. 

This project suitably addresses the framework of IFA’s Arts Practice programme in the manner in which it intends to create a book and an audio-visual installation that delves into the realm of speculative non-fiction exploring themes of identity, belonging, language and community in current times through a combination of artistic mediums. 

IFA will ensure that the implementation of this project happens in a timely manner and funds expended are accounted for. IFA will also review the progress of the project at midterm and document it through an Implementation Memorandum. After the project is finished and all deliverables are submitted, IFA will put together a Final Evaluation to share with Trustees. 

This project is supported by Tata Trusts.