EyeMyth Media Arts Festival | skip-a-beat curation

◇ 01 About

EyeMyth Media Arts Festival operates at the intersection of South Asian art, culture, and technology, to bring to life the future of immersive storytelling and new-media expressions. It is one of India's premier new-media arts festivals.

◇ 02 Editions

Year by year.

2026

Delhi, Mumbai and Geneva

Two city editions and a new international exchange. The Delhi edition in February explored AI for cultural good, creative economies and immersive storytelling, and opened the Elijah (UK) India tour with a lecture and an Audio Riot night. In June the festival came to G5A in Mumbai for two days of immersive storytelling and new media.

In between, EyeMyth took an Indian delegation to Mapping Festival in Geneva.

Delhi: 21 Feb 2026
Mumbai: 6 to 7 Jun 2026, G5A Foundation for Contemporary Art
Geneva: May 2026, Mapping Festival
Programme: Talks, workshops, performances, Audio Riot with Elijah, Spryk, Kreon and Norbu
Partners: Co-curated with Quicksand. Supported by the British Council. Elijah tour co-presented with AirHaus. Mapping exchange supported by Pro Helvetia

Elijah in India 2026

Geneva · May 2026

EyeMyth x Mapping Festival

An Indian media arts delegation showcased immersive audiovisual work and live performance at Mapping Festival 2026 in Geneva, the first year of a multi-year Indo-Swiss partnership supported by Pro Helvetia's Synergies grant. In 2027 the exchange adds month-long residencies for artists from both countries, culminating in showcases at Mapping Festival and EyeMyth.

A Passage to India (2084)Immersive audiovisual show by Murthovic and Thiruda
AlgoraveLive coding set by Abhinay Khoparzi at Le Groove
Wear is My LEDWearable LED project and workshop by Boris Edelstein and Upasana Nattoji Roy
WAVY RGB360° audiovisual performance by Spryk and Floating Point Studio in the Syllepse dome, Jardin des Nations

Read the full story →

2025

Three days at G5A

Three days at the G5A Warehouse in Mumbai, each built around a theme. The festival opened with a local-global symposium on media arts in India, led by festival co-founder Avinash Kumar and creative director Tejas Nair (Spryk). Day two turned to generative AI, real-time graphics engines and experimental soundscapes, and day three to worldbuilding and the art and technology of crafting virtual and fictional universes.

Dates: 20 to 22 Jun 2025
Venue: G5A Warehouse, Mumbai
Day 1: Media Arts in India: A Local-Global Symposium. Independent gaming, interactive installations and local-global media art landscapes
Day 2: Generative Futures for Media Arts. Gen-AI, real-time graphics engines and experimental soundscapes
Day 3: Worldbuilder: Imagining NextGen Entertainment. Building virtual and fictional worlds with platforms like Unreal Engine
Team: Avinash Kumar, co-founder. Tejas Nair (Spryk), creative director

Photos to come

2024

AI for cultural good

A two-day festival in New Delhi exploring AI for cultural good and creative middle economies. A full-day conference on 24 February was followed by workshops, performances and networking.

Dates: 24 to 25 Feb 2024
Venue: British Council, New Delhi
Programme: Conference, workshops, performances, networking
Partners: Co-curated with Quicksand. Supported by the British Council

A digital avatar

India's only media arts festival came back as a free, fully digital edition marking 10 years of UnBox, hosted on Lemonade. Zones included the Indie Game Arena, the Media Arts Hub, the second Massive Mixer Conference with 25+ speakers from around the world, the FIG 2022 open call on the theme Loss of Time, and a South-Asian media arts community showcase.

Dates: March 2022
Venue: Online, on Lemonade
Programme: Indie Game Arena, Media Arts Hub, Massive Mixer Conference, FIG 2022, community showcase
Partners: British Council, Pro Helvetia, Goethe-Institut, Japan Media Arts Festival, Australian Consulate-General Mumbai, Asialink

Video to come

2020

Visual Music Residency

There was no EyeMyth festival edition in 2020. Instead, the team ran a visual music residency with British Council Selector PRO, bringing together artists working across sound and image.

Programme: Visual Music Residency 2020
Partners: British Council Selector PRO, Unbox Cultural Futures Society, Future Fiction, skip-a-beat

2019

3 Days of Delicious Storytelling

The fifth edition of EyeMyth, themed "Futures of..." across 10 sub-themes spanning storytelling, music, art, gaming, transmedia, heritage and coding. The centrepiece was Massive Mixer, a two-day visual conference with 50+ local and international speakers.

Dates: 29 Nov to 1 Dec 2019
Venues: Deepak Talkies, ISDI, AntiSocial and FLEA Bazaar Café, Mumbai
Programme: Massive Mixer Conference, Media Arts Showcase, Speculative Sunday Workshops, Indie Game Arcade, Res Select afterparty, Immersive Futures
Partners: British Council, Pro Helvetia, Barbican, Asialink, Australian Government, Future Fiction, Unbox

2017

Future as Fiction

The fourth edition of EyeMyth asked how our perceptions of the future shape emerging technology, and how technology in turn shapes storytelling. It featured a VR films showcase alongside programming around visual music, interactive media and design practice.

Venue: Indian School of Design and Innovation (ISDI), Mumbai
Programme: VR films showcase, visual music, interactive media, design
Partners: Part of the UK/India Year of Culture 2017

2016

Medium as Somatic Impulse

A three-day festival in collaboration with the Japan Media Arts Festival, with guest curator Naohiro Ukawa. Screenings, performances and installations across two Mumbai venues, including the 150-year-old Edward Cinema.

Dates: 19 to 21 Feb 2016
Venues: Piramal Tower, Peninsula Corporate Park and Edward Cinema, Mumbai
Programme: Exhibits, installations, screenings, animation from around the world
Partners: Japan Media Arts Festival, Absolut, Jameson

Live audiovisual performance, EyeMyth 2016

Video to come

Medium as Somatic Impulse screening poster

Medium as Somatic Impulse exhibition poster

2012

LDN-Redux

A live cinema performance by audiovisual pioneers The Light Surgeons (UK), alongside the EyeMyth Film Festival of avant garde visual music films and the New Culture Mash-Up, the live audiovisual project of BLOT! and Nucleya.

Date: 10 Feb 2012
Venue: Edward Talkies, Mumbai
Partners: Levi's, British Council, Unbox

A decade of media arts.

07

Festivals

200+

Creators

25k+

Audience

Since 2011, we have programmed multiple editions of the festival, artist residencies, workshops, and other immersive experiences that bring digital creators and projects from across the world to Indian audiences.

Disrupting and expanding the idea of what art and creative practice is, EyeMyth has evolved into a movement that platforms plurality, represents fringe and emerging genres, and welcomes diverse aesthetics and communities.

01Speculative Futures
02Decentralized Art & the NFT Boom
03Mental Health + Art
04Virtual Worlds
05Social New Media
06Digital Heritage
07Indie Gaming
08Indofuturism
09Visual Music
10New Media & Social Justice

◇ 04 Festival Philosophy

Irreverence
Unlearning
Co-creation

We find meaning in the space between extremes.

◇ 05 Outreach

EyeMyth Festival aims to cater to the media artists community in India and facilitate connections with their counterparts globally.

Engaging enthusiasts, students, mid-career professionals and experts, we aim to create a space to share and learn.

EyeMyth has collaborated with illustrators, animators, 2D/3D artists, game designers, game developers, UI/UX designers, art historians, museum professionals, publication designers, writers, content creators, musicians, AV artists, DJs & VJs.

◇ 06 Media Arts School

Key themes.

01

Transmedia Storytelling

'Transmedia' is touted as the answer to this generation's insatiable media habits: endless stories that traverse platforms and geographies. Exploring what transmedia means for young creators globally.

02

Immersive Learning

A technique that makes use of virtual and gamified environments through which educators and learners can become completely immersed in the process. In an age of distractions, it catches the attention of learners and keeps them engaged.

03

New Media & Indigenous Art

The beginnings of Indigenous new media arts are contemporaneous with the development of new media itself. Despite vast differences in medium and scale, common threads run across work relating to Indigenous voice and agency, cultural heritage and storytelling via new media, as well as wider questions of diversity and ethics of representation.

04

Concept Art

Concept art (digital art for video games, films and entertainment) is a growing space globally, wherein artists envision a surreal cultural vision for technology through their work.

05

Smartphone Cinema

Exploring the creative potential of smartphone-powered filmmaking and storytelling, mediums made popular by social media platforms and independent journalism.

Media Arts School

Workshops.

The Media Arts School Workshops bring Australian and Indian mentors and creators together to help young and emerging practitioners collaborate and create new and meaningful projects.

The workshops also act as a platform for forging creative alliances between Australian and Indian creative professionals.

Sessions conducted by experts across two days
40+ participants and mid-career professionalsFilm makers, journalists, concept artists, musicians and sound artists, visual artists, creative producers, theatre artists

James Boyce leading a workshop — James Boyce · Speculative Sunday 2019

Meaningful Gamification

Indie Game Workshops.

Upskilling and knowledge-sharing workshops made available to early and mid-career professionals. An opportunity open to practising studios and serious practitioners.

7 sessions over 2 days
25+ participants
Gamification for mental health

Illustration of two people playing video games

◇ 07 Podcast

Imagined Media Futures

Podcast

An EyeMyth Media Arts Festival podcast series made during COVID, exploring what Australian-Indian creative collaboration looks like when borders close. Hosted by Tejas Nair, featuring leading practitioners from both countries on sustainability, cross-cultural work, and the future of independent arts. Supported by the Australian Consulate-General Mumbai and Asialink Arts.

Listen on Spotify

◇ 08 Previous Partnerships

Institutional partners

British Council· University of Melbourne· Asialink· Australian Government· Australia-India Council· Goethe-Institut· Barbican· Abandon Normal Devices· Pro Helvetia· Japan Media Arts Festival· Selector PRO· Ars Electronica· TodaysArt

Brand partners

Budweiser· Red Bull· Absolut· Levi's· Dolby Digital· Unity· Sennheiser· Alienware· Paytm Insider· VICE· Social· Acer

◇ 09 Press

In the press.

A few snippets from press coverage of previous editions by some of India's leading publications.

Mid-Day

"...is one of the only media arts festivals in the country that is known to amalgamate Indian and global art, culture and technology."

Platform

"Juxtaposing distinct phases of Indian history within the field of science fiction, various concept artists will print the newer, more mechanical perspectives of our history onto postcards to be given to festival attendees."

Outlook Traveller

"Immersive storytelling and mixed media wonders are the hallmark of EyeMyth, which will bring together radical designers, artists and technologists."

Also featured in: Firstpost· Mint· VICE· The Wild City· Homegrown· STIR· LBB· Globetrotter

EyeMyth Media Arts Festival.