If you ask a search engine about parenting, network, computer games, the articles explain how to protect a child from the net and draw the right boundaries between them and the medium. But what happens when, due to a pandemic or other social and political disasters, the boundaries between parent and child are physically closed? Then the digital network can become a place of freedom, the only way to maintain the connection between the two.

In 2019–2020, due to the pandemic, regular travel from Saint Petersburg to Marburg to see my child became impossible. Therefore, my son Jonathan and I decided to rent a server and build a house in Minecraft, which became our virtual home. There we met every day to plant something together, eat together, travel, fight monsters and explore new areas of life. Digital activities became our everyday life for a long time, digital experiences and digital hugs. It changed our relationship, deepened it, and we became close in a new way. The Motherboard invites viewers into a digital home, guiding them through a shared online life with photographs and videos, and asking whether digital spaces can ever succeed in overcoming closed boundaries. — Mascha Danzis