Acid Clouds

400 pages, english

Acid Clouds is an atlas and anthology of datacenters that maps the material traces of virtual data in the Dutch landscape. It investigates the massively resource-intensive and earthbound properties of digital storage, and questions the image of large-scale data repositories as clean, sterile and environmentally-friendly domains. The book brings together data of more than 100 datacenters across the Netherlands with texts on ecological, architectural, economical, political and digital rights aspects of their operation. These perspectives are accompanied by vivid night-time photographs that document the physicality of these infrastructures of power.

Editors: Niels Schrader & Jorinde Seijdel. With text contributions by Ramon Amaro, Hanno Bakkeren, Mél Hogan, Geert Lovink & Ned Rossiter, Michiel van Iersel & Mark Minkjan, Marina Otero, Niels Schrader, Jorinde Seijdel, Marleen Stikker and Alice Twemlow. Photography by Roel Backaert & Niels Schrader.