About
Peripheral centers and feminist servers investigate multiple approaches to the conditions of serving. It interrupts the endless flow of data that fuels the economy, exposing the cracks and gaps of the techno-scientific paradigm imposed on society. Where commands are executed, connections made, trust exchanged, and resources shared.
This feminist data center brings to light the physical infrastructure and actual labour which enable the processes we perform every day. In this exploration, we think through feminist approaches that reveal the concealed layers of our on(off)line interactions. We broaden our understanding of how this tangible, energy-intensive infrastructure truly operates behind the seemingly innocent notion of the ‘cloud’.
The various projects within Peripheral centers and feminist servers expose their infrastructure, emphasizing the material conditions of their production. We advocate that the fairy tale of immateriality has real socio-economic-environmental consequences.
Event
THURSDAY 28 MAR 2024
19:00-21:30
VARIA (Gouwstraat 3)
Listen to the presentation at the launch day
Projects
After examining Varia's on-site structure, we decided to integrate the project's content with the actual
functional layout of the site, resulting in the following groups:
door
table
shelves
aquarium
kitchen
Floorplan of project locations in Varia for the SI23 launch
How did we get here?
The door is a point of access. Walking through the door, guests have a chance to see the processes that take place here to ensure the flow of information that enables our everyday interactions on(off)line. This all happens behind an invisible infrastructure that we want to reveal.
How did we get here? invites you to interact with a website that takes you on a journey through the streets of our city, and welcomes you to our reimagined data center. Aiming for seamfulness by revealing and sharing processes, (re)sources, and tools.
This data center challenges the conditions of serving, by regulating the amount of connections. Thus you need an access token, which will be handed to you by someone who trusts you, to embark on the web journey. These tokens are limited to ensure that the resources are not depleted.
Visit the website -->
loading: feminist server...
A card-browser game: get a card, type the command in the browser. Receive an interpretation of its function, a connected feminist concept and instructions to execute. Serve and be served as you turn into a feminist server yourself by playing and interacting with the cards both online or one-on-one in the space.
Central to the project is the analogy between software and the material world. This allows for an exploration of the interaction between online and offline environments, and making conscious how this interaction shapes us.
The performative and educational elements are the means of this exploration, as the game invites actions in the physical space. Through self-reflective and relational qualities, it calls upon the feminist method and literature. A reconsideration of words with a set meaning will occur while playing.
The player(s) will get acquainted with important computational terms and commands, which enable associations extending beyond the terminal, into the social and eventually the personal spheres.
Visit the website -->
The Greasy Chip
A card-browser game: get a card, type the command in the browser. Receive an interpretation of its function, a connected feminist concept and instructions to execute. Serve and be served as you turn into a feminist server yourself by playing and interacting with the cards both online or one-on-one in the space.
Central to the project is the analogy between software and the material world. This allows for an exploration of the interaction between online and offline environments, and making conscious how this interaction shapes us.
The performative and educational elements are the means of this exploration, as the game invites actions in the physical space. Through self-reflective and relational qualities, it calls upon the feminist method and literature. A reconsideration of words with a set meaning will occur while playing.
The player(s) will get acquainted with important computational terms and commands, which enable associations extending beyond the terminal, into the social and eventually the personal spheres.
Visit the website -->
TL;DR
In a seamless world, awareness of techno-social infrastructure surfaces only when it's not working. But when you upload a photo, install an application, move a file, a technology serves, works, labours to execute what you've asked of it.
Inaccessible files track this work as data. These files are inaccessible in two ways: they're hard to retrieve and even harder to decipher. While these hidden files contain the not so hidden infrastructures of a server, they only manage to show a portion of it. After all, log files have a bias towards the technological ecology, prioritizing the labour of machines.
The actual infrastructure consists of much more: the people maintaining for the tech to work. A feminist data center acknowledges and fosters the infrastructure surrounding this technology; the physical labour, the decisions about shared spaces, the different knowledges that depend on each other for the network to exist.
tl;dr researches ways to make sense of these hidden labour that goes on in a feminist server through logged and unlogged effort.
Visit the website -->
Aquarium
Welcome. From now on imagine yourself as a goldfish, you are a digital goldfish living in a virtual aquarium.
The Aquarium is a sci-fi concept: wherever there are servers, there exists a virtual aquarium. Within this aquarium reside digital fish—embodiments of consciousness—observing human behavior. Each fish possesses autonomy. As users navigate the labyrinthine activities of the servers, these digital fish reflect their actions. The ecosystem of the aquarium extends beyond mere observation. It embodies the subtle interplay between users and the digital infrastructure they inhabit. In this text-based game, players assume the roles of these digital fish, each representing a unique perspective within the server ecosystem.
Visit the website -->
Data centers on fire
Your data is burning
Data centers like to autocombust
Don’t put all your internet infrastructure in one basket
The internet infrastructure is fragile
Data center sector is shockingly bad at reporting transparently
There is no black box for data centers
If your data didn’t burn it will drown
Data centers don’t like people! >:( things always happen when people are around
People actually die during fires >:(
