Atlas of the Cloud

« The Atlas of the Cloud unveils the invisible matrix of human labor, energy consumption, and resource extraction that underlies digital networks and artificial intelligence. », Marie Lechner

Everyone is kept under the illusion of living in the centre of a huge cloud, from which information, products, ready-made meals, drivers, potential relationships fall as if by magic... All information, all things, all people are accessible in a click. Every desire is fulfilled, every action optimized.

However, in reality, what seems immaterial is based on infrastructures, heavy, immense, expensive and polluting;

What seems to be volatile is in reality heavy;

What seems algorithmic is actually based on click workers and/or ubiquitous workers

What seems fluid is actually perennial and hegemonic;

What seems practical is actually extractivist

What seems innovative is actually toxic;

What seems free is actually expensive;

The Atlas of the Cloud provides a visual panorama of this system.

We collect images of online uses (home deliveries, video-conferences, dating apps...), and the infrastructures they require (data centers, delivery warehouses, automated factories...) Each plate of the Atlas shows a fragment of our living environment. How does the « cloud-society » appear ?