ServerGarden is a multichannel sound installation with recordings of electromagnetic waves from servers in a data center.
Data infrastructure is deeply material and consists of cables of all sizes, buried under the ground, sunken to the bottom of the sea, hanging high in towers and locked off in massive data centers; like a gigantic web of interconnections that appear invisible to many. The tendency is to understand “the web” as something intangible, far away and romanticised as “a cloud”, while it is in fact very physical, real and vulnerable when exposed, and on which vital societal functions depend on to work.
In 2022, Morten Poulsen visited one of these physical clouds: a data center in Copenhagen. With microphones that picks up electromagnetic waves, which are normally out of the range of human hearing, he listened to the inner workings of the almost endless interconnected rows of servers that exchange data day and night.
These sounds, reminiscent of crickets, are presented in a multichannel sound installation that features 32 tiny loudspeakers and 300+ meter cable.
Title: ServerGarden Production year: 2022/23 Exhibited on 03.03 to 18.05 2023 at Fraktal – Ventesal for samtidskunst, lyd og poesi (Skørping DK) Supported by Danish Arts Council, KODA, Den Obelske Familiefond & Rebild Kommune Thanks to Per Henriksen & Mette Lucca Jensen Photos by Morten Poulsen
