In n3xt.com,a subdivision of photomontage.com, Vancouver digital artist Shirin Kouladjie experiments with repetition and randomness. "Loops," made up of a short sequence of images, frequently repeating the same action, are overlapped with sound-bits. The respective durations of the image sequence and sound are not exactly synchronized, so each time the loop starts over again the sound is superimposed on a slightly different frame, emphasizing a new and different image. The result suggests subtle nuances that often start to tell a brand-new story, creating a new loop filled with new details. "The overall effect has a spiral movement that reminds me of the everyday life we live," says Kouladjie, "waking up every morning and doing the same thing, yet completing each day on a slightly different note. Although it feels like we are progressively advancing in life--learning, experiencing, and living-- we sometimes end up where we started. Sometimes we know more, but have forgotten what we knew on the way."

In watching Shirin Kouladjie's loops we see a story being told within the relationship between the images and the sound. Although abstract and initially simple to grasp, the stories can be experienced through aesthetic cognition. "What I always experiment with is non-linear storytelling," she explains, "a new language, something different from what we see in mass media. We just have to develop the necessary 'vocabulary' to express it."

As an object gains new significance when it is separated from its context, a few frames of a movie take on a new life of their own when they are isolated from their usual environment and put in a new light. "With each piece I am learning how to allow the viewer enough space and freedom to recreate and visualize their own story with every loop," offers Shirin, and, from her perspective, new thoughts emerge from almost anything disseminated by mass media.

As Shirin Kouladjie's works with repetitious and random elements of images and sounds, certain motifs begin to emerge. "I am becoming increasingly aware that the viewer has the capacity to enjoy only a limited number of things at one time," Kouladjie says, "and when this amount has been exceeded one actually sees less rather than more. As a result, I am conscious of what I use in each composition, and recently find myself mostly deleting rather than adding."