city in the cloud: data on the ground
The Architecture of Data
publication
2025

Published by ARCHITANGLE, edited by Cara Hähl-Pfeifer, Damjan Kokalevski, and Andres Lepik, available through the Cedon Museum Shop.
https://architangle.com/book/the-architecture-of-data


Research and Photography: Giulia Bruno
City in the Cloud – Data on the Ground investigates the hidden physical infrastructures behind the digital world.
Data may appear immaterial, but it relies on extensive global networks: the extraction of raw materials, the deployment of thousands of undersea cables, and an exponentially growing number of energy-intensive data centers.
While these data infrastructures shape global economies and politics, they do far more by profoundly impacting local communities, ecosystems, and labor conditions — realms so often rooted in (neo)colonial structures of exploitation.
The contributions in this volume call for greater transparency, critical awareness, and care toward the material foundations of the data economy — as essential conditions for more equitable and accountable digital futures.
Bringing together voices from architecture, media studies, technology, art, and political theory, City in the Cloud – Data on the Ground explores the elemental, spatial, and temporal dimensions of the architecture of data. The volume maps the ecological, social, and political costs of living in a hyper-connected digital world and opens perspectives for rethinking digital infrastructures in the context of planetary resources, justice, and long-term responsibility.

With contributions by:
James Bridle, Giulia Bruno, Teresa Fankhänel, Cara Hähl-Pfeifer, Max Hallinan, Mél Hogan, Catherine Hyland, Damjan Kokalevski, Andres Lepik, Niklas Maak, Marija Marić, Anna-Maria Meister, Marina Otero Verzier, Trevor Paglen, Godofredo Enes Pereira, Andra Pop-Jurj, Alison Powell, Māra Starka, and Rafael Uriarte.

Cover Photo Giulia Bruno, Catherine Hyland 2025

Photo Giulia Bruno, 2025