Neil Potnis is an Indian American multimedia artist and researcher whose work investigates how visual media shapes political knowledge. He is the founder of Disruptve Studio, a nonpartisan media lab exploring visual culture and social movements within the South Asian diaspora.

 

His interdisciplinary practice spans documentary film, image-based research, and computational media with recent work featured in the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale. Trained across media arts and design, Potnis holds an MSc in Computational Design Practices from Columbia GSAPP and a BS (Hons) in Arts and Entertainment Technologies from The University of Texas School of Design and Creative Technologies. He is currently a PhD student in International & Transcultural Studies at Columbia University where his research examines social movements as sites of civic exposure, combining ethnographic inquiry and visual media to document how participants organize around issues of climate justice, inequality, and responses to nationalist and neoliberal pressures shaping Desi youth.

 

Prior to his doctoral studies, Potnis served as a Design Fellow at Columbia Entrepreneurship and Columbia World Projects, leading social impact workshops for the Obama Foundation Scholars. He has also worked at several environmental and civic research labs including labr, where he helped develop the first climate registry oriented towards civic participation.

 

Ultimately, his goal is to bridge the gap between academic theory and public action, utilizing critical media practice to equip diaspora communities with the visual and conceptual tools needed to challenge dominant political narratives and imagine a more equitable future for historically marginalized communities.