Greetings from…

Our current networked era is far different from the utopia that was envisaged with the emergence of the World Wide Web in the early 1990s. We are now living in an age that is both post truth and post web. This is a time when state and non-state actors alike develop and utilise technologies that track and mine our interactions with the interface in order to monetize our desires and needs whilst manipulating the social, economic and political systems upon which global society has been built.

One such actor is Amazon, whose reach and influence spans all corners of the globe and the web. Much of our current networked infrastructure is dependent on Amazon Web Services (AWS). Its global infrastructure is split into ›regions‹ and ›availability zones.‹ Our digital lives and memories are stored within IRL black boxes – massive data centres in industrial estates and business parks around the world. Aside from being an intrinsic component of the commercial internet, AWS also works with various governments and operates a ›secret region‹ for US intelligence agencies.

For the duration of this online residency, I will expand on my research into the operations of AWS globally. Using both the Amazon Atlas (www.wikileaks.org/amazon-atlas) and the AWS infrastructure map (www.aws.amazon.com/about-aws/global-infrastructure) as starting points, I will track and identify new AWS data centres around the globe. I also hope to initiate contact and dialogue with artists/activists within specific AWS regions in order to promote and develop tactical, subversive and creative interventions within these systems of corporate networked power.