Since 2017, Studio MoreThanThat creates intimate, multisensory experiences at the intersection of performance, storytelling, sensory design, participation, and human connection.
Studio MoreThanThat creates intimate, multisensory experiences situated at the intersection of performance, storytelling, sensory design, participation, and human connection. Led by Nitish Jain, it is an international platform and network that brings together artists, thinkers and makers from diverse disciplines for long-term collaborations across contexts, geographies and formats.
At the centre of the platform's practice is a body of work developed since 2018 under the framework Sensing Earth: Mediated Sensory Fictions. Across these projects, participants are blindfolded and guided through storytelling drawn from the lives of animals, birds, and sea creatures. Participants inhabit altered sensory and emotional positions mediated through touch, taste and smell that bring these worlds alive in the body. In an age of digital acceleration, Sensing Earth advocates rest and wellbeing, of both humankind and the ecology, through playful, sensory methods that counter overstimulation and spectacle. Drawing from Indian rasa aesthetics, phenomenology, folk traditions across cultures, and oral storytelling lineages, the framework is shaped by ecological thought, more-than-human perspectives, and postcolonial critique.
Studio MoreThanThat is led by Nitish Jain, whose broader practice and full body of work can be found at nitish-jain.com →
Three works within the Sensing Earth: Mediated Sensory Fictions framework, developed since 2018.
An intimate encounter with the spectrum of new life, from magical tenderness to brutal sacrifice. Drawing from animal stories and European folk tales, it holds birth, mortality, and sacrifice in the same breath.
Selected for Nová Krev, New Blood on Stage 2020, Czechia. Toured festivals and venues across Czechia since, including Malá Inventura International Performing Arts Festival, National Gallery, Prague (2020), Open Air Festival, Hradec Králové (2020), Luhovaný Vincent Festival, Luhačovice (2021), and Moving Station, Plzeň (2021); Wiesbaden Biennale of Art, Wiesbaden, Germany (2022); and Jižní Svéráz Festival, České Budějovice, Czechia (2026).
Named after a dessert from Lucknow. An invitation to daydream, to sit with tenderness, to return briefly to your inner child, and to all that makes us human. A solitary inquiry into our personal relationship with nostalgia, giving and receiving care, acknowledging loss, and sitting with love and grief.
Commissioned by Serendipity Arts Foundation, India, for Serendipity Arts Festival, Panjim, India, in 2024. Also presented at Manotsava National Mental Health Festival, Bangalore, India, in 2025.
A multisensory, participatory experience for groups of up to ten, exploring ecological models of leadership. Participants are guided through touch, smell, taste, sound, and imagination, moving from onboarding through a multisensory journey to a tailored closing debrief.
Commissioned by Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies, India, and premiered at BLR Hubba Festival, Bangalore, India, and Pravaha Festival, Bangalore International Centre, Bangalore, India, in 2026.
A decade of touring, commissions, and international residencies.
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