Feeds and flows of networked images both depend on and constitute the centrally managed computational infrastructure of The Cloud. The Cloud provides digital storage, content-delivery and on-line applications across industries, from entertainment to financial markets, from military technology to agricultural applications. Large amounts of hardware are brought together in strategically placed data centres, connected through public and private networks that extend into our pockets by way of smartphones which demand continuous streams of content. This computational infrastructure is mainly managed by Big Tech companies owned by shareholders, who need to prove growth year on year. They expand into new areas continuously, increasing the need for more Cloud services, or more compute. The expansionist, extractivist and financialized modes of The Cloud deeply affect our aesthetics, how we organise, and care for resources. It turns all lively and creative processes into profit, including ways to resist it. Now our dependency on The Cloud seems intractable, it is time to imagine different infrastructures for collective life with and without computation. Counter Cloud Imaginaries include collaborative file hosting, low-energy graphics, queer circuits and slow sustainable tech-maintainance. They center trans★feminist and anti-colonial server practices and organise collectively towards joyful, systemic techno-political change. 

Der Vortrag ist auf englisch. Er ist Teil der interdisziplinären Vortragreihe Feeds & Flows – Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Ephemeral Image Cultures

Für Fragen zur Veranstaltung: lisa.rein[at]uni-weimar.de (Wiss. Mitarbeiterin an der Junior-Prof. Digitale Kulturen)

Montag, 8.1.2024, 19 Uhr
UB Lounge + online