Remote access without screen sharing?

I have an iMac and a MacBook Air. I'd like to remotely access the iMac from the Air on my local network, so I can take advantage of the iMac's superior processing power and file storage, while sitting in a different room. The problem is that my iMac has a 27" monitor and a 24" secondary display, so screen sharing doesn't work very well on my Air's tiny 13" monitor.
My question is, is there any software that would allow me to remotely login to the iMac and give me a Mac OS interface, but size that interface appropriately for the MacBook Air, rather than just showing me the actual desktop of the iMac. Basically, I want it to pretend like the notebook's monitor is the monitor connected to the remote mac and still execute all the code on the remote mac. Extra points if I can essentially instantiate a second instance of the same account on the iMac, so I can be logged in locally and remotely at the same time, with the same account, but with different looking desktops.

I presume that your issue is your viewing two very small side-by-side screens on an already small screen. There is a drop down menu on the screen sharing window itself (that is, the window of the screen sharing app running on the MBAir, on the left side in the vicinity of the toolbar) where you can select to display either the left screen, the right screen, or both screens. I have a (employer-owned) 17" MBP that accesses a (employer-owned) dual-screen iMac and find that switching between left and right screens is not too bad of a compromise, in exchange for being able to actually see (and do) anything on the iMac from the MBP's screen sharing app.

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    Message was edited by: aglifribbason

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