The „data“ we exchange daily via smartphones and PCs is not a virtual fiction, but a deeply physical entity that occupies vast tracts of land and consumes immense quantities of electricity and water. This work presents the blueprints of a data center—the invisible infrastructure of the modern world—and superimposes them onto the surveillance mechanism of the „Panopticon,“ the circular prison conceived by Jeremy Bentham, to interrogate the nature of our contemporary surveillance society.
While data centers are not built for human habitation, they are thick with layers of information (pink), the vast energy that drives it (yellow), and the water resources (blue) required to cool the feverish systems, all manifesting as a dense stratification of figures and graphs. Just as the Panopticon compelled self-discipline through the constant threat of a „gaze,“ the modern data center aggregates and manages our every action as data, shaping social discipline from an invisible vantage point.
The contrast between the mathematical data rendered on these precise diagrams and the colossal physical space they inhabit exposes the hidden „weight“ of information concealed behind a digital mask. It challenges the viewer to confront the power structures we inhabit in exchange for convenience.
