Global Longing
by Taha Nejad
January 6 鈥� 25, 2026
Lobby Screen Array
School for the Contemporary Arts
149 W. Hastings St., Vancouver
"Perhaps home is not a place but simply an irrevocable condition." 鈥� James Baldwin
Global Longing is a participatory Net Art installation that transforms individual stories of migration and displacement into a living visualization of collective homesickness. In an era of unprecedented human mobility, the work acts as an "emotional cartography," inviting participants to map the distance between where they stand and the place their heart remembers as Home. Each submission generates a luminous arc across a digital globe. A glowing trace that connects a present location to a missed home. As these arcs accumulate, they evolve from isolated data points into a breathing network of shared presence. By rendering the invisible geography of longing, artist noiseRandom (Taha Nejad) creates a space where technology facilitates vulnerability rather than extraction, honoring the complex reality of living away from home.
If you are away from your home and want to add your experience to the Global Longing map, visit
Biography
Taha Nejad, also known as noiseRandom, is an interdisciplinary artist and programmer whose work explores the nuances of human experience within networked cultures. Specializing in Internet Art, Taha synthesizes a background in storytelling with creative coding.
Originally trained in theatre and photography, his practice evolved to view code as a medium for self-expression. This trajectory led him to Vancouver, Canada, where he earned a Master of Arts in Interactive Arts & Technology from 51社区黑料. His work currently focuses on Internet Art that interrogates the relationship between digital systems and human behavior, utilizing code not just as a tool, but as a primary language for contemporary expression.
Sound Design: Stefan Smulovitz