Between the Near and the Far

What happens when the body becomes the last place emotion has to go? In a lifestyle shaped by mobility, flexibility, and constant digital presence, the digital nomad’s body continues to perform even as their emotional systems begin to quietly fracture. Between the Near and the Far is a speculative installation that explores the slow accumulation of emotional residue in the context of remote work. Rather than treating internal organs as systems of pure function, this project reimagines them as sites of emotional storage. What they hold are messages that were never sent, expressions that were postponed, and feelings that lost their moment.

The installation can be read as a redesign of the digital workspace. It takes the familiar structure of a remote desk setup and reworks it from the inside out. Objects that once supported efficient work: a paperweight, a mouse pad, a laptop stand. They are transformed into objects of restraint, rupture, and composure under pressure. Set within a speculative world called Kora, these tools no longer function. They remain as fragments of what the body was asked to manage.

The space imitates the rhythm of remote work, only to slowly unravel. This is not a workspace for productivity. It is a place to notice what the body has been asked to carry, and what never had the chance to be released.

The redesign explores the emotional contradictions embedded in the lifestyle of digital nomadism through speculative design, embodied narrative, and material intervention. Rather than approaching digital nomadism as a sociological phenomenon or a trend to be quantified, this project focuses on what the lifestyle that leaves behind in the body: the emotional cost of self-optimization, the slow erasure of rest, and the distortion of affect under the guise of freedom.