Taking as starting point the fire of the OVH data center that occured in Strasbourg in March 2021, the project explores the role that Cloud ideology plays in the construction of society.

The work develops through the institution of a techno-cult and the setting up of a private ritual, practiced by the creation of codified places and symbols. This techno-cult unifies symbols, signs and schemes belonging to the world of Cloud and the subversive world of witches, described by philosopher Silvia Federici in her ‘Caliban and the Witch’.

 

The council is evoked with different elements, such as a film where the video of the OVH fire is continued and subtitled thanks to artificial intelligence, black cloud idols made of polyurethane, a wide format pvc banner where schemes from Cloud computing manuals are transformed into esoteric glyphs, a t-shirt of techno-cult belonging and a soundscape inspired by the song Angel Witch of the homonymous band.

 

As in the Middle ages witches were accused to summon storms with the fire of their cauldrons, the OVH fire becomes the ingredient for the summoning of a more free Cloud. Virtualization technology, proper to Cloud computing, is here considered as the natural development of enclosures, which caused the destruction of the commons and transition to capitalism in medievial Europe. At the same time, the witches council becomes ritual of celebration for an upside down Cloud.

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