KARMA!
by Jiaru Li
The project examines the manifestation and inescapability of Karma, not as abstract retribution or passive fate, but as an unyielding cosmic force shaping bodies, cities, and technology.
01. Ecological Interventions: investigating the relationship between natural systems and human interventions.
Film Logline: Karma rules the world, inked onto every face, its darkness revealing the weight of one’s past. Dr. Wang enters the Karma Void, a space beyond consequence where the boundary between belief and reality begins to fade.
Project Description:
Set in the year 2147, Karma! explores a world where Karma has become law. Every citizen is born with a shifting tattoo beneath their right eye—a visible mark of moral consequence. In this society, every action is tracked, judged, and remembered. Dr. Wang, a brilliant scientist and one of the system’s original architects, begins to feel a quiet unease. The system works too perfectly. Too silently. In search of answers, he builds The Karma Void—an experimental machine-space where cause and effect no longer exist.As he enters, his tattoo fades. He feels free—for a moment. But soon, sound disappears, weight vanishes, and the world begins to forget him. Without Karma, there is no consequence. And without consequence, there is no self. This is a film about freedom, disconnection, and the price of escape from karma.
SHORT FILM - Blender, Unreal Engine 5, Procreate, Pencil
