The research project Personal Bubble began from this question. It asks how personal boundaries shift and adapt in relation to physical and digital environments, and how an imaginary personal space might become perceptible through artistic practice operating between these realms. The Personal Bubble was initially conceived spatially: as an imaginary boundary around the body through which proximity and distance are negotiated.

The research initially approached this through a distinction between physical and digital space. Practical experimentation gradually made that distinction difficult to maintain. Digital technologies do not operate in a separate, immaterial realm: computational systems depend on sensors, materials, infrastructures, interfaces, rules and bodily practices. They operate within physical environments while increasingly participating in how those environments behave. The question therefore shifted from how digital technology affects personal space toward a broader enquiry: how do technological systems organise relationships between bodies, tools and environments?

Personal space had always seemed to me something bodily. We feel someone approaching before we necessarily decide that they are too close. We move aside, turn away, close a door or draw a curtain. The boundary is invisible, but we continuously make and remake it through these small negotiations of distance. What happens to such a boundary when part of our presence can travel without our body?

I can be alone in a room and still be reachable. Someone can know where I am without being near me. A system can notice that I am present without seeing me as another person would. Physical distance no longer necessarily means distance.

At first, I thought this was a question about the difference between physical and digital space. The research began by asking how the Personal Bubble might exist somewhere between the two.