Data are discrete pieces of information as well as the infrastructures that extract, process, and analyse them. Big data are data and metadata from every single digital action and its trace, as well as every stock market trade, tissue sample, and credit application that is processed through an online service, app or technology platform. Data are extracted within the terms and conditions governing digital services, the ubiquitous ‘I agree’ stage of signing up. Users unfortunately do not always know what exactly they are agreeing to in signing up for the service. The value of data comes from infrastructures that enable its endless capture, storage, and analysis.
Speculations on Making (Inverted) Mountains
By Natalie P. Koerner
"I looked at the mounds of excavated rock, the plateaus of even, grey, scattered rock, the endless views across huge water basins that resemble marshlands or the site of ebb, of pre-tsunami, pre-epic-arrival. Because of the superhuman, supra -human scale, I thought of Gods and the mountainous architectures that have been built for them."
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The Water Chronicles
By Tricia Toso
"Is it cynical or naive, or perhaps ironic (?) to discuss the impending apocalypse of climate change, while hydrating from bottled water?"
