City in the Cloud: Data on the Ground includes a visual research project by Giulia Bruno investigating the hidden architectures, ecologies and energy systems that sustain digital infrastructures. City in the Cloud: Data on the Ground investigates the hidden architectures, ecologies, and energies that sustain digital infrastructures. The exhibition traces the physical foundations of the so-called “cloud,” revealing its entanglement with urban, environmental, and social systems. Through photography and research, Giulia Bruno explores the material and conceptual dimensions of data infrastructures. Her work examines how technological landscapes intersect with human perception, translating the abstract flows of information into tangible spatial and visual experiences. By bringing into focus the architectures of computation and their environmental imprints, her practice opens a critical reflection on the relationship between image, system, and territory.
Curator: Damjan Kokalevski Research Advisor: Marina Otero Verzier Research and Photography: Giulia Bruno Photography: Catherine Hyland Curatorial Assistants: Ramona Kornberger, Leo Paulmichl, Māra Starka Public Program Coordinator: Sarolta Szatmári Student Assistant: Yuval Ehud Exhibition Design: CP WH Graphic Design / Motion: Wiegand von Hartmann Interactive Exhibits: 3E8.STUDIO
Publication: The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue published by ARCHITANGLE, edited by Cara Hähl-Pfeifer, Damjan Kokalevski, and Andres Lepik, available at the Cedon Museum Shop.
Thanks to: Giuseppe Ielasi for editing and sound composition Paola Raheli for dedication, love and support
The Architecture of Data is the publication accompanying City in the Cloud: Data on the Ground, bringing together research, photography and critical perspectives on the material infrastructures of the digital world. 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.
