Topologies of ‘The Cloud’: (im)materialized

2018
Mixed Media Installation (light stands, transducers, steel bars, neon light, fluorescent adherent tape, computer server rack)

Video Documentation

Google’s dictionary defines a cloud as a visible mass of condensed water vapor floating in the atmosphere, typically high above the ground, but also as a state or cause of gloom, suspicion, trouble, or worry. The implications of this double-meaning is fitting for an infrastructure that is far from being transparent and immaterial, which has turned into a political metaphor and relies on opaque processes of energy extraction that remain covered by a profitable industry of cloud computing. 

Topologies of ‘The Cloud’: (im)materialized is a multimedia installation exposing the cloud's hybrid taxonomy, which involves extractivist processes to support an omniscient network of information that claims for immateriality. As a responsive installation, an array of data-collection modules react to a local wi-fi network's activity to then auto-generate frequencies, translating in this way imperceptible processes of data transmission into sound. Using concealed transducers (a device that converts variations in a physical quantity into sound), a 16-channel interface enables each metal bar to act as an independent speaker through which sound travels in the form of vibrations to emulate a mechanic force scribing what seems to be encrypted information. A neon light source and an intersecting wireframe volume made of fluorescent masking tape produce an atmosphere that builds a metaphorical base from which to think about the cloud's illusory notion of immateriality.