memory architecture

Year: 2023

1-channel video, 14’29”

Memory Architecture is a short film about the opposing yet analogous structures of data and memory, set against the backdrop of the boom in data centre construction currently taking place in the arctic north, including Sweden. As the global demand for data has increased rapidly over the past few years, this region has become increasingly central to this new economy as host of an extensive data centre network, which takes advantage of the cold climate to cool their servers. Named for the set of methods used to implement computer data storage, Memory Architecture explores this phenomenon through the fictional story of a surveyor who has travelled north to survey a site for the building of a server farm, only to find that the systematic task of transforming the terrain into a digital model quickly becomes an impossible challenge as the landscape itself shifts beneath his feet.

This work was produced in the context of a residency at the Moskosel Creative Lab in Moskosel, Sweden. Support for the project comes from the Moskosel Creative Lab/Northern Sustainable Futures.