The act of charging our phones could be considered as a routine, simply plug in your phone, wait a few hours and you are ready to go. Which materials and states of matter allow for the immediate availability of energy, and thus connectivity?
Minerals such as lithium and gold as well as the material or the connection water are crucial to technology and geopolitics. The Infrastructure - the associated chemical processes, quantities, material qualities, and the methods of extraction and production - determine the relationship between the so-called nature and technology. Simultaneously computer-based tools for data generation and analysis have been an integral part of biological research since the 1990s at the latest. (Nature of Data/Data-Infrastructure). What status is given to software and algorithms in the production and analysis of data?
This seminar proposes a critical perspective on the processes of entanglement between matter, nature, and (digital) technology. In this context, infrastructures are defined as material, phenomena and physical networks, immaterial relations and symbolic actions. The entanglement of social actors, institutions, platforms, and as well economic, technological, and ecological systems constitute the infrastructures and require critical perspectives.
For example, thousands of kilometers of copper wires traverse run over the planet’s entire surface, even the deepest portions of the ocean. Structures coexist, mesh together and appear as hybrid ecosystems, in a highly intervened “natural” environment. Water from rivers is being diverted and used to cool down server farms that keep the internet alive. On the other hand, we gain data and statistics on Microplastics in bodies and oceans.
We will attempt to discuss how infrastructures are built, designed, constructed, developed, and maintained. We read together theories that define this relationship in both artistic and scientific contexts. (e.g. Michel Serres, Lynn Margulis, Bruno Latour, Fabian Borges -Technoshamanism). We will explore and investigate these theories concerning the infrastructures of matter: Gold, water and plastic. Numerous artistic projects serve as starting points here. Smaller excursions (trips in "nature") are planned too.
These infrastructures are not linear processes for and from material extractions. They are quite complex intertwined interactions, in which politics and colonial systems play a crucial role. This network of relations makes a critical viewpoint on matters possible, which includes global environmental politics.