Data Cloud

Selected for 'Climate', Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, 2022

Data Cloud (2022), is an image of a cloud produced from its own metadata, screen-printed onto a 23.75ct gold leaf background.

The work explores the strange collision between clouds and computing, and how landscape metaphors make technology seem as natural as the weather. It highlights the comparative value systems of the material and digital worlds, personal data now being more valuable than gold. The gold leaf extends, but also holds the illusion of immateriality in check. It anchors the viewer to the present as its reflective surface is activated by the movement of light, while also suggesting another realm. The data meanwhile, appears to move in streams above it.

The digital cloud is constructed from metals, plastics, concrete, while its cooling systems and computer storage facilities exist in a landscape hidden away from everyday experience, a vast digital wilderness. The work conjures up the metals and extractive processes that facilitate cloud computing, while reminding us of the dependence of the immaterial illusion on the material world.

• Organisation