The Cybernetic Wilderness of Data Centres

Donal Lally, Essay, Low Density, States of Entanglement: Data in the Irish Landscape, Technology and fabrication, Territory and mobility.

Architecture, Artificial intelligence, Communication, Computation, Data, Data storage, Digital era, Dublin, Ecological infrastructure, Ecosystem, Energy consumption, Essay, History, Information, Ireland, Landscape, Machine, Urban realm

Excerpt of States of Entanglement: Data in the Irish Landscape by ANNEX

The data centre is arguably the iconic architectural typology of the information age. Like a weed, it can exist in extreme environments, reproduces quickly, and can overrun delicate ecosystems. To date, its adaptability has been enabled by the extreme standardisation of its component parts. With advances in artificial intelligence enhancing this adaptability, we are now witnessing the data centre as catalyst for a new urban habitat. This article is about a cybernetic wilderness – dominated by data centres – that is present and growing on the edges of Dublin city; a wilderness where machines commune with machines and the human is pushed to the periphery.