immersive
ART
BY SHIVANI KARAN
Shivani Karan creates distinctive immersive artworks. Winner of Doc Edge Best immersive impact award 'Lane25' combines VR and AR technology, preserving stories from untold histories for future generations.
Lane25 is only viewable at exhibitions.
Current exhibition at Fresh Gallery, Ōtara:
16 Nov 2024 - 1 March 2025.
Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa.
See details
EXHIBITION
adi
TALAM
BY SHIVANI KARAN
In 2020, during the isolation of the pandemic, I began a journey to reconnect with the music of my ancestors by learning the Kanjira, a traditional Indian drum my grandfather used to play. With local lessons unavailable, I turned to the internet and found my teacher, Sankar Ji from, Chennai, India. I started to build a connection to this rhythmic craft. Though my journey is still unfolding, by 2022, while residing in Los Angeles (pictured), I composed a short piece that would later become part of the VR experience Lane25. This was a transformative period, as I connected the threads of heritage, music, and digital art.
Director: Shivani Karan
Artist: Allana Goldsmith
Song: Pipiwharauroa
"Directed by Shivani Karan and shot in the stunning Manaia, Coromandel - The sun-drenched video – like something straight out of a Tourism New Zealand ad – shows Goldsmith’s family living the dream summer life in Taungatara" - Review by Sarah Downs, Rolling Stone
MUSIC VISUALS
Director: Shivani Karan
Artist: Goldsmith Baynes
Song: Hei Kawe i a Au
"The video itself is intelligently and evocatively shot at Te Henga, a beach on the west coast of New Zealand by Shivani Karan. In an unusual circumstance for a contemporary music video, Karan accurately captures the essence of the song in the visual interpretation- it's extremely effective as musical imagery." - Review by Trevor Faville, New Zealand Music Articles
MUSIC VISUALS
immersive
STORY
Shivani is dedicated to empowering youth through storytelling programs and hands on experiences with augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). Her art aims to showcase the diverse cultures of Aotearoa while preserving stories for future generations.
Find out more about Immersive storytelling workshops
her
STORY
Shivani Karan is an immersive artist whose work in Virtual Reality and mixed media transforms memory and heritage into sensory virtual landscapes, where personal and collective histories intertwine. A fourth generation descendant of Indian Girmityas, Shivani was born in Fiji and is now based in Tāmaki Makaurau, crafting works that are both intimate and expansive. Her collaborations with local and international artists, including Grammy-winning producer Hazebanga and Māori contemporary musician Allana Goldsmith, reflect her exploration of cultural and indigenous perspectives using new technologies to reimagine places and stories for future generations. Her award-winning project, Lane25, which was honoured at Doc Edge 2024, is an invitation to wander through liminal spaces, exploring how memory, sound, visuals and digital landscapes can be merged to re-imagine who we are.

"What I try to capture is a feeling, the real essence of a place. My work of course is inherently tied to a complex past but I want it to spark imagination and creativity and bold adventurous ideas about how we could express ourselves in the future."

  • Shivani Karan, founder of Lane25
Copyright © 2022 - 2024 Shivani Karan, Lane25