project

01/06/2020 – 01/07/2024

ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe

Data Decay

Data, from Latin the root ›the given‹ occupies a status of eternal truth, but data is never given, but always culturally created and technologically embedded. The conceptualization of data presents two significant problems: in culture, it might not always be desirable to imagine data as eternal. In technology, by 2025, data centers are predicted to consume more energy than any other in-industry. The infrastructure surrounding ›the given‹ holds largely unseen environmental and cultural consequences. Based on theories of ›the Différance‹ by Jacques Derrida and ›der Spur‹ by Sybille Krämer, this work visualizes data not as ›the given‹ but as ›traces‹ over time. The recursion of data and images through experimental visual transformations reimagine computer systems, not as eternal but as flux. Everything in the world is in fluctuation, so why should our digital infrastructures follow alternative modes of operation? This project takes Peter Galison’s concept that ›Images scatter into data, data gather into images‹ literal and imagines data as traces, not as eternal but always in decay.