Ojasvani Dahiya is exploring creating interactive and immersive experiences that look at realities of the distant past and the far future which are grounded in the present. She is currently experimenting with spatial and interactive forms of technology to create visual experiences informed through sound and rhythm. Her areas of interest are post-colonial urban landscapes, identity, altered states of consciousness and anti-capitalism. Ojasvani has previously worked in the Film/TV post-production industry in Los Angeles.
Ojasvani Dahiya
शहर में (Sheher mein – Hindi for “In The City”) is a docufiction short film that illustrates the contradictory tensions between objective representations and subjective interpretations of agency in a developing urban landscape – focusing on communities that exist on the fringes, but make up the very backbone of urban ecosystems which are fueled largely by capitalism.
In a country increasingly marred with internet shutdowns, censorship against voices that challenge the dominant authoritarian political narratives, and the rapid proliferation of technological access outpacing human centred development – “Sheher Mein” seeks to highlight the voices of the undercommons and illustrate representations of varying mediated relationships to reality. As a work of experimental docufiction, the format lends itself to represent a “post-truth world” and highlight the striations of marginalisation in a specific urban context and setting.