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.
