“Environmental media” in the cloud: The making of critical data center art

Abstract

Despite the numerous projects and exhibitions dedicated to technology and Internet infrastructure, “Data Center Studies” has not yet fully grappled with art’s role in the wider intervention critical scholarship is making via the data center—as object, cultural image, sociotechnical imaginary, site, metaphor, and concept. In this article, I weave in artworks and insights from artists to make a theoretical intervention about what constitutes environmental media “in the cloud,” and how a critique of Internet infrastructure has spurred a critical data center art movement.