The Cloud Rendered in Water & Blood

There is something duplicitous about our idea of “the cloud”. The Cloud Rendered in Water & Blood grounds the ephemeral metaphor of “the cloud” in the very real physical infrastructure and labor that makes it possible. We think of our digital data and processes as decentralized and vaporous, but they are created and maintained by very tangible submarine cables, data centers, human workers, and natural resources. This piece is heavily inspired by concepts explored in Tung Hui-Hu’s A Prehistory of the Cloud.