Data Centers
Questions of privacy, borders, and nationhood are increasingly shaping the way we think about all things digital. Data Centers brings together essays and photographic documentation that analyze recent and ongoing developments. Taking Switzerland as an example, the book takes a look at the country's data centers, law firms, corporations, and government institutions that are involved in the creation, maintenance, and regulation of digital infrastructures. Beneath the official storyline—Switzerland’s moderate climate, political stability, and relatively clean energy mix—the book uncovers a much more varied and sometimes contradictory set of narratives.
Questions of privacy, borders, and nationhood are increasingly shaping the way we think about all things digital. Data Centers brings together essays and photographic documentation that analyze recent and ongoing developments. Taking Switzerland as an example, the book takes a look at the country's data centers, law firms, corporations, and government institutions that are involved in the creation, maintenance, and regulation of digital infrastructures. Beneath the official storyline—Switzerland’s moderate climate, political stability, and relatively clean energy mix—the book uncovers a much more varied and sometimes contradictory set of narratives.
Winner of Die schönsten Deutschen Bücher & Die schönsten Schweizer Bücher 2020/2021
«Es bietet sich geradezu an, darin zu lesen, wenn im Homeoffice vorübergehend das Netz ausfällt.»
"It is almost made for reading when the internet temporarily goes down while working from home."
– TAGES-ANZEIGER
«das Internet mit all seinen Apps und Algorithmen basiert auf einer globalen physischen Infrastruktur aus Tiefseekabeln, Rechenzentren und Datenspeichern. Das von den HistorikerInnen Monika Dommann und Max Stadler sowie dem Künstler Hannes Rickli herausgegebene Buch «Data Centers» ist ein wertvolles Lehrstück dazu.»
"The internet, with all its apps and algorithms, is based on a global physical infrastructure of undersea cables, data centres and data storage facilities. The book Data Centers, edited by historians Monika Dommann and Max Stadler and artist Hannes Rickli, is a valuable lesson in understanding this"
– WOZ
