‘Cloud Factories’ is an ongoing research project that investigates the growing entanglement of our professional and social lives with the ‘Cloud’ and the material, environmental and socio-political consequences of this relationship.
The project gives form to the multilayered histories, presents and futures inscribed to the land that has been selected to host the ‘Cloud’. What is destroyed when (supposedly) ‘empty’ territories are transformed into the physical structures enabling our digital culture? What promises do these ‘Cloud Factories‘ hold for local communities? And which regenerative publishing practices can emerge in dialogue with this land?
The starting point for our research is the story of a hyperscale data centre project by Meta: When their plans to built a data centre near Zeewolde (NL) became public in 2022, a coalition of farmers, activists and residents mobilised to stop the project. Soon after, authorities in Talavera de la Reina (ES), located in a drought-affected and economically deprived area, unveiled that Meta is planning build a large data centre on the outskirts of the city. Construction is due to start soon.
Rather than documenting existing manifestations of the ‘Cloud’, the project is situated in a different temporality, specifically the moment before the ‘Cloud’ lands on the ground. On the sites examined by the project, the materiality of the ‘Cloud’ remains hidden – either because it has been successfully resisted or because it has not yet been built.
Papertrail / Livio Liechti is having a poster workshop, Down with the Data Centre!
