ENTANGLED ECOSYSTEMS GRANT

What does it mean to be entangled—with a forest, a fungus, or a changing climate? How do field notes, temperature logs, or a canopy scan reveal the pulse of an ecosystem—and the ways it is being disrupted?

Science Gallery Bengaluru and Shared Ecologies—a programme supported by Shyama Foundation–invite artists or collectives of Indian nationality to apply for the Entangled Ecosystems Grant. This is an opportunity to create a new exhibit that explores ecological connections through the intersection of art, science, and research. 

The selected artist or collective will collaborate closely with ecologist Dr Meghna Krishnadas, engaging with material ranging from plant tissues and fungal cultures to spreadsheets, models, and images of the forest canopy.
  We seek proposals that are process-driven, participatory, and immersive—projects that go beyond presenting ideas to open new pathways for discovery. The final work will take the form of an exhibit, though the medium is open to your interpretation. Whether through sound, video, installation, sculpture, or a combination of these, we encourage you to choose the format that best conveys the depth of the ecosystems you wish to explore.

The commissioned exhibit will be developed between July 2025 and February 2026, and will be unveiled in March 2026.

Timeline: 

Applications open: 11 May 2025 - 11 June 2025 [11:30 PM IST] 

Results by: July 2025 

Exhibit production: July 2025 - February 2026 

Showcase: March 2026 

WHAT MAKES A STRONG OPEN CALL PROPOSAL?

First and foremost, we prioritise works that help our audiences critically explore the processes of producing knowledge relevant to the topic of the current Open Call. The proposal should critically engage with themes of ecology, environment and the climate. 

We strongly encourage you to take a moment to explore our archive of previous exhibitions to consider the Science Gallery Bengaluru ethos before committing your valuable time and energy to the application.  

We invite proposals that may be completely physical, or are physical with a digital or online component. 

WHAT TYPES OF PROJECTS ARE ACCEPTED? 

Our approach is trans-disciplinary so we accept projects from highly diverse disciplines that could include art-works, video, performance, poetry, craft, sound, web-based work, socially engaged work, live experimentation, design, sharing of data from social science, medical, or natural science research – essentially we are not format-prescriptive!

WHAT TYPE OF DATA WILL I WORK WITH?  

Artists will have access to a range of materials generated through ecological fieldwork and analysis—Excel sheets from field studies, observational field notes, digital images (including canopy scans, species documentation, and remote sensing), temperature and humidity data from digital loggers, experimental observations from greenhouse-grown plants, collections of soil and plant tissues, fungal cultures, and processed analytical outputs such as graphs, statistical models, and visual data representations. These materials offer multiple entry points for artists to explore, respond to, or work with ecological questions and patterns.

More details about the data are given below.

1. Excel sheets of field data records: 

This is often the core data of the field ecology group. Each project and goal has specifc datsheets based on the question being asked. This can include field notebooks, sometimes for the same job as excel sheet, but also general notes.

2. Photographs:

Of people, plants, insects, canopy images, landscapes, remote sensing. Some of it is meant for curiosity, identification of species, records of research, or images that are analyzed using software (e.g., canopy openness).

3. Digital data loggers:

Data loggers monitor temperature and humidity at different parts of the systems being researched. They are often important for long term monitoring such as what we do for seedlings and about to start for older plants.

4. Plants growing in the greenhouse:

We conduct experiments to assess plant features such as their ability to use light and water, respond to soils, and compete with each other.

5. Collection of soil and plant tissues (leaves, roots):

These are collected from fields and greenhouses, often to characterize features such as tissue quality, nutrient content, chemistry etc. These 'traits' of plants relate to many functions such as efficiency of resource use, stress tolerance, competition etc.

6. Fungal cultures growing in test tubes and petri dishes

7. Analyzed data: 

These emerge from raw data - tables, statistical codes, model outputs, software, graphs (scatter plots, bar plots, regression lines, dot-and-whiskers plots, multivariate plots) - representing quantitative synthesis and formal evaluations. This is what you would see in peer-reviewed publications, reports, work presentations.

WHEN WILL I GET AN ANSWER?

Science Gallery Bengaluru and Shared Ecologies will notify applicants if their submission has been successful by July 2025. The gallery will be considering submissions during June-July 2025, so if questions about your project are identified we might contact you for clarification during this period.

WHAT IS THE NEXT STAGE?

If we think your work is exciting and relevant, we will start a conversation about your Proposal with a view to establishing feasibility in July 2025. 

ABOUT SGB

Science Gallery Bengaluru (SGB) is a not-for-profit public institution for research-based engagement targeted at young adults. We work at the interface between the human, natural and social sciences, engineering and the arts through a Public Lab Complex, ever-changing exhibitions, and mentorship programmes. 

SGB is established with the founding support of the Government of Karnataka and three academic partners—Indian Institute of Science, National Centre for Biological Sciences, and Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology. It is a member of the Global Science Gallery Network with sister galleries in Atlanta, Dublin, London, Melbourne and Monterrey.

ABOUT SHARED ECOLOGIES

Shared Ecologies is a program by the Shyama Foundation supporting initiatives at the intersection of art and ecology – through critical, creative, aesthetic approaches, and collaborations with various disciplines and knowledge systems. Through grants, programmes, and conversations, we aim to facilitate a regional and international ecology of individuals, practitioners and institutions, who share overlapping concerns, philosophies and methodologies.

ABOUT THE ECOLOGIST 

As an ecologist, Meghna Krishnadas is curious about the mechanisms that maintain diversity in ecosystems. In a different life past, Meghna was a medical doctor, but she left the hospital halls to walk the forest trails. Her transition to ecology began with the realisation that biodiversity was being lost at alarming rates. Meghna went from activist to scientist because she felt that knowledge was essential to action, but she was also increasingly driven by intellectual curiosity about the complexity of life around us. When not thinking of science and conservation, she likes to run, practice yoga and try out new fitness regimens. Good books, great conversation, and gastronomy rank high in her life agenda and someday she would like to farm (at least some of) her own food.

Know more about Meghna's work here.

About:
 

What does a city remember—and what do we remember of a city?
  A street turned unfamiliar. A building lost to time. A fragrance carried on the wind. 

As part of Sci560, we invite you to respond to a set of writing prompts that dwell in the textures of urban life—real or imagined, remembered or reimagined.

We are inviting writers aged 18 to 30, based in Bengaluru, to respond to a series of writing prompts drawn from contemporary literature that explores the many ways we live in cities. These excerpts—from writers like Anjum Hassan, Michelle Mendonca Bambawale, Karan Mujoo, Unmana, Aishwarya Jha, and Tiffany Tsao—span places like Goa, Jammu, Singapore, and Bengaluru. They reflect on migration, memory, routine, dislocation, and small rituals of belonging. 

You are encouraged to submit a short piece— essays or poetry—that engages with your own experience of a city. It could be the one you grew up in, the one you live in now, or one entirely imagined. What matters is how the city becomes a part of your story.

Shortlisted writers will be mentored by Jayapriya Vasudevan, literary agent and founder of Jacaranda Literary Agency, in a series of closed workshops. Under her guidance, you will refine your piece for a public reading in July 2025.
 

Timeline:

Call goes live: 23 May 2025

Call Closes: 15 June 2025

Writing workshop and Mentorship session: 13 July 2025

Public reading and Showcase: 20 July 2025

Participation Guidelines:

1. The deadline for submissions is 11:30pm IST on 15 June 2025 
2. You must be between 18 and 30 years of age to participate.
3. You must be a resident of Bengaluru or be present in Bengaluru for the writing workshop and as well as the public reading.
4. You can submit a maximum of three responses per person.
5. Your submission must be in English.
6. Please include the title of your work in your submission.
7. Your submission can either be an Essay or in the form of Poetry.
8. For Essay Submissions, Word count: 800 to 4,000 words. Choose a length that suits your story—short personal reflections or longer explorations are both welcome.
9. For Poetry Submissions, Length: 10 to 60 lines. This can be one longer poem or up to three shorter poems (total not exceeding 60 lines). Style: All forms are welcome—free verse, spoken word, narrative poetry, haiku, or experimental forms.
10. Entries must be submitted in .doc or .pdf file formats. The file should be named as follows: YourName_Title_IYW2025
11.  Text within the submission should be formatted in Calibri, size 12.
12. You retain all the rights to your work. By submitting your work, you will give Science Gallery Bengaluru the permission to use your submission during Sci560, and your submission will be archived on the Science Gallery Bengaluru website.
13. Your submission should not have won or placed in other competitions, or have been published in an official capacity in other magazines, exhibitions, etc.
     

About: 

How do you see your city? Sci560: Through Your Eyes is a photography mentorship programme for young photographers (aged 18–30) that invites you to look closely at Bengaluru—not through its skyline or headlines, but through its details and daily choreography. We are offering six prompts to begin with: Adjust, Froth, Dust, Raste, Mane, Put Scene.

Each of these holds a world. Adjust is how you survive—sliding across a bus seat, finding your place in a queue, learning to make do. Froth is the lightness of filter coffee and craft beer—but also the thick, toxic bubbles of Bellandur Lake. Dust is everywhere: in demolition and construction, in erasure and possibility. Raste (roads) take you home, to work, to strangers and stories. Mane (home) is where your day begins and ends—or where it used to. And in this city, someone is always putting scene — turning up with a story, laying down a mood, or just hanging out with no agenda at all.

Respond to one or more of these prompts with your lens. Selected participants will be mentored by photojournalist Sameer Raichur and supported in further refining their submission that will be exhibited at Science Gallery Bengaluru and shared online. Interested participants can submit their photographs through the form linked below. 

Prompts: 

Adjust 

Froth 

Dust 

Raste 

Mane 

Putting Scene

Timeline: 

Call goes live: 12 May 2025 

Call closes: 30 May 2025 

Mentorship session: 14 June 2025 

Showcase: 29 June 2025 

Participation Guidelines: 

1. You must be between 18 and 30 years of age to participate.
2. You must be based in Bengaluru or willing to travel to the city for the duration of the mentorship session and the showcase. Science Gallery Bengaluru is not able to cover the travel or accommodation costs of selected participants.
3.  Submit your response by 11.59pm IST on 30 May 2025. 
4. You can submit upto three responses per person.
5. Your submission must be photographs. 
6. The minimum resolution of the photographs should be 300 dpi. 
7. The photo has to be made by the person making the submission.
8. Your submission should not have won or placed in other competitions, or have been published in an official capacity in other magazines, exhibitions, etc.
9. Your submission must have a text-based description/caption of between 50-150 words in in English. If you’re submitting in any other language apart from English, please add a translation in English.
10. Your submission must have a brief bio of between 50-150 words in any language along with translation in English.
11.  Any copyright violations or issues with permission will disqualify your entry.
12. By submitting photos/clips of children you expressly agree that you have secured permission from the child’s parent or guardian.
13. Any conflicts/ issues/violations arising out of sharing of the photo will be the liability of the photographer and the subject. The organisers are not liable to any dispute arising out of the submission.
14. Photos must not contain any nudity or any derogatory, racist commentary or visuals. Such entries will not be considered.
15. You retain all the rights to your work. By submitting your work, you will give Science Gallery Bengaluru during Sci560. Your submission will be archived on the Science Gallery Bengaluru’s websites.