Interlude: Echoes of Longing
Interactive Experience
Thesis Project:
Parsons School of Design
Year:
2023-2024
Role:
Creative Direction
Animation
Interaction Design
Programming
For my Thesis at Parsons School of Design, I collaborated with a fellow Design and Technology major to direct and create an interactive, animated experience exploring the dynamics of video calling within long-distance relationships, highlighting the emotional impact of physical separation and the limitations of digital intimacy. This project was heavily inspired by the film Past Lives and my personal view of technology’s role within romantic and platonic relationships.
For this project, I was responsible for crafting the visual narrative, user interaction, and storyline of the experience. I was also the sole programmer of the project, successfully implementing voice input mechanics to drive and animate the story. I also helped to animate multiple cutscenes in Maya and integrated them with gameplay segments in Unity.
For those in long-distance relationships, whether romantic or platonic, the feeling of longing has always lingered despite the endless means of digital communication available.
What if video calling, for example, could do more than just virtually connect you to someone— what if it could transport you to a shared physical space? Could this version of communication truly bring us face-to-face with our loved ones?
“Interlude: Echoes of Longing” focuses on the role of synchronous communication within these relationships, showcasing its ability to both connect and create distance between individuals. Grounded in the concept of longing, we immerse participants in an interactive, animated journey centered around transportation through the simulation of a video call— one person calling from New York City and the other calling from Jakarta.
Driven by conversation and the passage of time, we highlight the effort two individuals make to bridge the physical gap between them, reflecting the underlying desire we feel to be with our loved ones. By integrating real-time communication with visual storytelling, we explore yearning through a bittersweet narrative, offering an emotionally evocative experience for individuals grappling with the challenges of separation. Moreover, our project sheds light on technology’s inherent limitation to fully satisfy our need for intimacy, reinforcing the notion that video calls are ephemeral and yearning will always persist in long-distance relationships.
Installation