August 13, 2024
More on Mario Santamaría's Internet Tour.
Like any other digital technology, or the Internet itself, the current explosion of AI research and applications relies on their conceptualization as immaterial technologies.
The idea of clean, ethereal networks whose data is stored in a bodiless Cloud is nothing but a fallacy that hides thousands of miles of fiber optic cables, innumerable data centers, and increasing global energy consumption. The Internet that feeds and fuels AI is made up of a series of materials, constructions, and interventions that are hidden from the naked eye; from inconspicuous buildings in the centers of our cities, to urban beaches where the undersea cables that connect countries and continents are buried under the sand.
An in-person journey through the physical Internet infrastructure, a tourist route of non-touristic places, by Alex Saum-Pascual, Poet and Assoc Professor of Contemporary Spanish Literature and New Media, and Mario Santamaría, Visual Artist and Lecturer, BAU, College of Arts and Design of Barcelona. With the participation of Asma Kazmi, Research-Based Artist and Assoc Professor of Art Practice, the Fall 2024 Class of Questioning New Media, and the Indigenous Poetics Lab at the Arts Research Center.
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Images from the Fall 2023 Internet Tour. All photos: Mario Santamaría
Featuring:
Alex Saum-Pascual, Poet, and Associate Professor of Contemporary Spanish Literature and New Media, University of California, Berkeley
Mario Santamaría, Visual Artist and Lecturer, BAU College of Arts & Design, Barcelona
Asma Kazmi, Research-Based Artist and Associate Professor, Department of Art Practice, University of California, Berkeley
The Indigenous Poetics Lab, Arts Research Center, University of California, Berkeley
Fall 2024 Class of Questioning New Media