Planetary-scale computation, which supports the technological mediation of our daily lives, has numerous environmental, economic and political implications, of which we are not always aware. Energy grids and mineral sourcing, underground cloud infrastructures, or interfaces designed as motor or sensory extensions dissolve into countless data, algorithms, and devices that assist us daily.
Networked Infrastructures explores three geographies (environmental, economic, political) behind planetary-scale computing, seeking to expose how they are affected or produced while we use our technological devices on a daily basis. Based on different types of infrastructure addressed by Jonathan Koomey, namely consumer electronic devices, data centers and clouds or communications networks, the project addresses some of their environmental, economic, and political implications, related to electronic waste, data sovereignty and digital colonialism. The website Infrastructures Explorer allows us to learn these facts by exploring the globe according to these three geographies. In addition, the brochure Beyond your 5 GHz Wi-Fi signal works as an introductory guide to the topic, gathering artistic projects that comment on it, as well as excerpts from authors, such as James Bridle, Metahaven or Benjamin Bratton, who address the geopolitical implications of planetary-scale computing.
If we see the world as a vast computer in which data become the fundamental fuel for its functioning, we can understand how most of the tasks we perform (when we turn on a smartphone, see the feed of a social network or send an email), are supported by several apparently invisible territories. According to this idea, the project seeks to establish a cause-effect relationship between our role as consumers and the resulting environmental, economic, and political implications.
