I've Loved You From Afar
[Fractalize]


Once upon a time is not what it used to be. Storytelling and sharing stories in the digital age engages the reader/user/viewer in a multi-sensory experience using multimedia movies that combine photographs, video, animation, sound, music and text using computer based tools to tell the story.

FRACTALIZE is a work of hypermedia fiction. A collaborative multimedia arts project created by artist and cinematographer Lesley Loksi Chan, composer and digital media artist Tony Vieira and musician Arthur Yeung.

The first installment in the FRACTALIZE series is an ongoing collaboration and fractal/forensic media arts project entitled, I've Loved You From Afar.

I've Loved You From Afar is a carefully crafted media piece which follows the story of Elizabeth and Richard. Their affair explores themes of ecstasy of distance and isolation while touching on desire. It features multiple pieces that represent more than one truth in an environment without a plot, that curiously end up telling without telling, a modern love story about the two characters.

How they have come to be is told in narrative fractals in the form of gallery exhibits, performances, happenings, alternate reality experiences, web videos, photographs, music, text messages, sound art, 360ยบ video, augmented reality, and social media posts.

I've Loved You From Afar “Is really an experiment in e-literacy. [We are] experimenting with the different ways a story can be told [while using] as many media as possible to engage the end user. I don’t think of [the audience solely] as a viewer, reader or a listener, because [the audience] is all of them, an end user, sort of like a video game.” says Tony Vieira.

Elizabeth and Richard interact in limited fashion. Their relationship is on display in an immersive experience for the viewer with interwoven imagery, Tinder style pictures that consistently offer a bird's eye view into the depth of the couple's connection. Theirs is a modern love story unfolding in a time duet in a perceived future that has appeal for a romantic tourist.

The exhibit and accompanying videos distil the essence of creative storytelling in what could either be a dream or time spent in virtual reality. It is unlike linear stories that we are used to, and has no narrator.

It's an emotional telling that delves into Elizabeth and Richard's relationship as you try understand the beauty of their connection, as flash backs of memory, video and sound bytes make their union come alive.

Their story communicates a moving tale while we empathize with the disconnect, desire, honesty and the ache of long distance romances.
Or does it?
It seems out of time, beyond the screen.
Is it a dream?
Is it a game?

Technology is changing the ways stories have been traditionally told. I've Loved You From Afar signals a shift from passive viewing to something more interactive. Parts of the story are these fractals with intentional gaps that allow the viewer to fill in based on their own experiences, anxieties, and desires. Indeed, it hooks you emotionally as the visceral angst triggers your own feelings and memories as their tale unfolds.

“I always think of the tone of the story in a way that is similar to the way I experience dreams and memory, which is a little strange, not always linear, not always making sense.” says Viera.

It is a talk back through time. Layered. Unconventional. A maze.
One is left with unsettling emotions to a sense of awe as the journey wraps with the confession of one of the lovers.

By the end of it of I've Loved You From Afar, I walked away with a very distinct inclination to be more present in the moment with my loved ones.

I've Loved You From Afar is a romance across space and time.
Told uniquely in hypermedia, as a work of fiction,
is a fractal reminiscence unlike any other.
This could be the future of story telling.
See for yourself at www.fractalize.net

FRACTALIZE the multimedia exhibit was recently held at artist-run resource centre for film, video, new media, installation and sound art.
The Factory Media Centre
www.factorymediacentre.ca
228 James Street North, in Hamilton.

FRACTALIZE the exhibition and programming in it's entirety is comprised of video installations, Virtual Reality drop-in demonstrations, a Twitter Salon workshop, a lunch and learn, an Alternate Reality Walk with the Artists and closed with a panel discussion moderated by Ralph Benmergui in October 2017.


About the Artists:

Lesley Loksi Chan’s multidisciplinary works have been exhibited internationally and often explore the ambiguous ways in which the personal connects to wider cultural meanings through everyday objects and technologies. www.lesleyloksichan.com

Tony Vieira is a musician, composer, and media artist who creates immersive visual and sonic landscapes for mobile and locative media. He has composed original music scores for television, film, and interactive media, and has created augmented reality, alternate reality, and virtual reality projects that have exhibited internationally

Arthur Yeung attempts to redefine the presentation of contemporary electronic music in the live environment. He has performed internationally with his solo electronic music endeavours and collaborations as Falling Line, been an integral member to Toronto-based indie bands and co-founded the multi-disciplinary (i.e. visual media, movement, music) performance groups The Looking Sea Collective and Automates.
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