Allison Lin

Artist | Designer | Animator

Allison Lin is a time-based media artist and designer passionate about crafting visual narratives that examine the various contradictions and complexities of the human experience. Through art direction, design, and animation, she brings grounded, intimate stories to life, often employing symbolism to build layers of meaning that prompt reflection and introspection. Her work explores themes of longing, nostalgia, and temporality, subtly revitalizing the mundane into profound.

Alexandria Handaja

Creative Technologist & Designer

Alex Handaja is a Chinese-Indonesian creative technologist and designer based in New York. Her work takes shape in various mediums, including graphic design, digital illustration, AR/VR, and 3D modeling.
Through her work, she aims to create immersive worlds and tell compelling stories through innovative technology.

Whether listening to music, watching music videos, or rediscovering parts of her culture, these diverse experiences help stimulate her creativity and artistic expression. As she explores her own identity in her work, she is also passionate about highlighting Asian creatives in the entertainment industry.

Thesis Faculty

Ernesto KlarMelanie CreanAyodamola Tanimowo OkunseindeGloria Duan

Interlude: Echoes of Longing

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.