Critical Studies of the Cloud
Exploring Art in and around Data Centers
The idea for this project – Critical Studies of the Cloud – emerges from decades long research into ‘the cloud’, and the belief that the field has not yet fully grappled with the intervention artists have made, and are making, via the data center – as object, cultural image, sociotechnical imaginary, site, metaphor, and concept – alongside all the other material manifestations of the data on and through the internet.
This project accompanies Dr. Hogan’s article in New Media & Society: “‘Environmental Media’ in the Cloud: The Making of Critical Data Center Art.”
You can also find an open biblio on critical data center studies, including AI and infrastructure.
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Ongoing chronology of critical data center art & studies of the cloud:
Pali Meursault: Datascape. Artkillart. (2007)
Matthieu Kavyrchine: Câbles (2007-2008)
YoHa (Matsuko Yokokoji and Graham Harwood): Coal Fired Computers (2010)
Steve Rowell: Networked Nation: The Landscape of the Internet in America (2013)
Karin Fister and Iztok Fister Jr.: Plant-based digital data storage? (2013)
Femke Snelting: Feminist Servers (2013)
Matt Parker: The Cloud is More Than Air and Water (2014)
Matt Parker: Turbulence in the Chamber (2014)
Yuri Pattison: colocation, time displacement (2014)
Timo Arnall: Internet Machine (2014)
Julie Freeman: We Need Us (2014)
Evan Roth: Landscape with a Ruin (2014-2017)
Amber Frid-Jimenez, Ben Dalton, Joe Dahmen, Tim Waters: The New Cloud Atlas (2015)
Fernando Godoy: The remote series II: Cu (2015)
Nicole Starosielski, Erik Loyer, Shane Brennan and Erik Loyer: Surfacing (2015)
John Gerrard: Farm (Pryor Creek, Oklahoma) (2015)
Stéphane Degoutin and Gwenola Wagon: World Brain (2015)
Kynan Tan: Polymorphism (Data Centre Simulation) (2015)
Francis Hunger: Database Derivé (2015)
Tim Exile: RemixIT: Man, Machine, and Sound video with IBM (2016)
Emma Charles: White Mountain (2016)
Ryan S. Jeffery and Boaz Levin: All That is Solid Melts into Data (2016)
Ingrid Burrington: Networks Of New York: An Illustrated Field Guide To Urban Internet Infrastructure (2016)
Mick Jongeling: The Cloud Decoded (2016)
Mick Jongeling: Twittersong (2016)
Matt Parker: The People's Cloud (2017)
Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli: Data Architectures (2017)
James Bridle: Citizen Ex Installation (2017)
Kyriaki Goni: Aegean Datahaven (2017)
J.R. Carpenter: The Gathering Cloud (2017)
Sam Kidel: Silicon Ear (2018)
Francis Hunger: Databody (2018)
Grow Your Own Cloud (Cyrus Clarke, Monika Seyfried): Data Centre Flower Shop (2018)
Ivar Veermäe: The Flood (2018-2019)
Niels Schrader: Acid Clouds (2019)
Maya Indira Ganesh and Johannes Bruder: Cloud cosmogram (2019)
IOCOSE NoTube (2019)
Paul O'Neill: A Guided Tour of Dublin's Internet Infrastructure (2019)
Samir Bhowmik: Circuit Breaker (2019)
Eva & Franco Mattes: Personal Photographs (2019)
Misho Antadze: The Harvest (2019)
Kirk Gordon: The Weight of the Cloud (2019)
Mario Santamaría: Cloudplexity (2019)
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: Cloud Display/Monitor de Nubes (2019)
Grow Your Own Cloud (Cyrus Clarke, Monika Seyfried, Jeff Nivala): Data Garden (2020)
Gabi Ivens, Joana Moll & Michelle Thorne: The Museum of Fossilized Internet (2020)
James Bridle: Under the Cloud (2020)
Paul Dolan: The Cloud in the Sea (2020)
Zane Griffin Talley Cooper: Alchemical Infrastructures: Making Blockchain in Iceland (2020)
Mario Santamaría: Unfixed Infrastructures and Rabbit Holes (2020)
Kyriaki Goni: Data Garden (2020)
Simon Denny: Mine (2020) https://www.e-flux.com/announcements/340636/simon-dennymine/
Paul O'Neill: Greetings From… (2020)
Alex Tyson and Saleem Ali: Material Zoom - The Hidden Elements of Working from Home Amidst COVID (2020)
Jessie Dolliver and Philip Punch: ‘Irish Data Centres: An Introduction by Not Here, Not Anywhere’ documentary for Dublin Digital Radio (2020)
Jeroen van Loon: Permanent Data (2020)
Annex (Sven Anderson, Alan Butler, David Capener, Donal Lally, Clare Lyster, and Fiona McDermott): Entanglement (2020-2021)
Mario Santamaría: Internet Tour (2018-2021)
Juan Pablo Pacheco Bejarano: UNDERWORLD / INFRAMUNDO (2021)
Sarah Cashman, Michela Ledwidge and Brett Neilson: Data Farms Sonification: An Experiment in Data Modelling and Spatial Audio (2021)
Iris Long, He Zike: Under the Cloud (2021)
Thomas Dekeyser, Andrew Culp:Machines in Flames (2022; 49min)