I interviewed Kate Voet & Victor Maes about A Long Goodbye on Saturday, August 30, 2025 at Venice Immersive in Venice, Italy.
Here is the story synopsis for A Long Goodbye:
- “A Long Goodbye tells the story of Ida, a 72-year-old pianist living with dementia. In this animated, interactive VR experience, we walk in Ida’s shoes. We experience a day in her life, as her reality is fading. The apartment, where she spent a lifetime with her beloved husband Daniel, first feels empty and undefined. When we interact with objects and play the tape recordings of her husband, her playful world gradually comes to life, as if drawn in paint before our eyes. Like pieces of a puzzle, memories and conversations help Ida to rediscover herself. But we also discover Daniel’s struggles, as he hopes to stay connected and realises their remaining time together may be short. A Long Goodbye is a poetic experience about the impact of dementia, but above all it is about love and the long goodbye of two lovers who shared a life together.”
Here are the contextual domains that are explored:
- Self and Identity [1], and the loss [8] of memory [1]. All the ways that we capture and record our identity [1]. “Like pieces of a puzzle, memories and conversations help Ida to rediscover herself.” Artifacts of shared experiences and memories shared within the spatial context of a home [4], Husband [7] caretaker [7] of the main character with Ida, “72-year-old pianist living with dementia.” Music [5], wihch was a part of her career [10], and the various adventures they had together [9]
Here is the Elemental Center of Gravity:
1st Center of Gravity of Emotional Presence: Narrative-driven, animation with lots of immersive & interactive components. The pacing is gated with interactive actions, and the movement of your body seamlessly blends into various things like change blindness edits. An incredible score with different themes for different characters, and the world starts to change and dissolve as the main protagonists memory also fades giving you a sense of time, and unfolding processes. Victor is also a cinematographer, and so there’s lots of canny translations of cinematic grammar into an emerging spatial grammar. VERY EMOTIONALLY IMPACTFUL |
2nd Center of Gravity of Earth Element / Environmental and Embodied Presence: An incredibly transportative world with a very distinct water coloreque aesthetic. Lots of embodied movement through this piece. Also some mashing up of contexts between these worlds that is reminescent of Meow Wolf. There’s quite a lot of void space to help direct attention, but also makes excellent use of available space. There’s physical movements paired with virtual locomotion. And the physical installation with post-it notes also helped created a strong magic cirlce for the piece. You are also embodied as Ida – as you learn about yourself as she has to do each and every day. From their artist statement, Kate and Victor said, “When we put the VR headset on, the first questions that come to mind are: Who am I? And where am I? This confusion is exactly what our protagonist is dealing with and this became the starting point of the story.” |
3rd Center of Gravity of Fire Element / Active Presence: Interactions that gate the narrative in order to help modulate the pacing of the story. Free to physically move within space, but also paired with virtual locomotion. They aspired to allow people to be able to wander through the story and you get a bit lost along the way. So TRUE! |
4th Center of Gravity of Air Element / Mental and Social Presence: Dialogue amongst the characters, and also tape recording. Nice blend of metaphoric memory and dream logic with an amazingly well-written script. But also a puzzle-like structure as you piece together the story. |
Archetypal Themes and Character Explored:
- Memory. Loss, Grief, Death. The slow dissolving of the structures of memory as reflected within the sparse void-like architecture of the piece itself reflecting this slipping away into liminality. The love that they share within their partnership. “a poetic experience about the impact of dementia, but above all it is about love and the long goodbye of two lovers who shared a life together.” So talking about the details of the condition, but also the caretaker / partner who is living with this condition “A Long Goodbye is at once a personal and a universal story about human connection. It serves as a reminder that people are always so much more than their illness. Instead of focusing on what is lost, we need to stay close and hold on to shared affection.”
Artist Statement:
- “When we put the VR headset on, the first questions that come to mind are: Who am I? And where am I? This confusion is exactly what our protagonist is dealing with and this became the starting point of the story. We were drawn to this theme because of Victor’s grandfather who lived with Alzheimer’s disease, and whose health declined rapidly after Victor’s grandmother passed. The experience of having witnessed this emotional transformation close by, made us explore how dementia is experienced and how it influences the relationship with your past, with yourself and with your loved ones. A Long Goodbye is at once a personal and a universal story about human connection. It serves as a reminder that people are always so much more than their illness. Instead of focusing on what is lost, we need to stay close and hold on to shared affection.”
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Music: Fatality
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