Planet Earth is wrapped in a gigantic mesh of fiber-optic cables and electromagnetic waves. Its surface is drilled for resources that are extracted to generate energy for the mining of cryptocurrencies and the accumulation of data clouds.
The computer in the palm of your hand is the entry point to an accidental planetary structure linking computer villages in Lagos, to fiber-optic submarine cables in the Atlantic to e-waste sites in Guangdong, to corporate-owned satellites in orbit, to a swelling quantity of IP addresses and teraflops of data.
This exhibition explores the materiality and immateriality of the digital reality we live in. Earth is dug, excavated, and ripped apart to extract the fundamental materials that keep the computational machine running — oil, coltan, rubber, lithium form the material basis on which digital reality is built. At the same time, digital technologies enable new modes of circulation and extraction of information and data. Algorithmic regimes regulate the movement of goods and people around the world in relatively smooth fluxes enabled by increasingly sophisticated surveillance systems.
How do we make sense of digital transformation and its many social, political, cultural, and environmental implications on people around the world? How do digital technologies shape the way we map and understand space? How have diverse worldviews, shaped by social and spiritual concerns, affected the way technologies have been developed and implemented across the globe?
Vertical Atlas started four years ago with a series of public talks, research labs and Digital Earth Fellowships. It has now become a book bringing together the insights of a diverse group of internationally renowned artists, scientists and technologists. It makes explicit the many exploratory paths and collective knowledge of people and communities working on redefining how technological worlds are seen and visualized.
