ATHAVAN KRISNAGOPAL - AR HINDU TEMPLE

In a dystopian future of earth where humans have left the planet due to its inhabitable nature that developed from pollution, natural resource depletion, etc., a self-sufficient Hindu temple that has Hindu God statues that are robots, and they stand on charging ports. I created a AR model of a Hindu temple gopuram that incorporates a futuristic twist to represent my heritage as a Hindu Tamil-Canadian. I’ve always seen my culture portrayed in a primitive and disingenuous way. But I believe that my culture also has a modernistic future that can be portrayed in a sci-fi context. I combined different traditional elements of Hindu culture with futuristic elements to create a futuristic Hindu temple in a sci-fi context. I used glow-in-the dark paint for certain parts of the temple to make it futuristic. It also addresses the question of whether religion will be obsolete in the future and addresses the two possibilities. The first possibility is religion becomes obsolete, becomes a mythology, and this temple is a remnant of the past that humans have forgot. The second possibility is religion flourishes and humans have built this futuristic temple to commemorate the history of humanity. Surya, the Sun God, on the top part represents the solar power that is generated on the top part. The Kalasams, the 7 finials at the temple’s top, act as lightning conductors, which protect and preserve the nature around it, which is also a feature of traditional temples as nature is seen as divine. The generator cores are the energy cores that distribute the energy throughout the temple to the god robots. The god statues are robots and they stand on charging ports located on the outside of the temple. The three gods are well-known and are worshipped throughout the Hindu pantheon: Shiva, Ganesha, and Murugan.