Students
Katie Nolan / Trespass
Trespass examines our digital culture as pharmakon. Ireland is Europe’s largest Data Centre market. Dublin, known as the ‘Cloud Capital of Europe’, is host to 25% of all Data Centres in Europe. Constructed on sites that were formerly orchards, farmland, forestry, and protected habitats, these ravenous beasts consumed 144% more energy in 2020 than in 2015. It is estimated that by 2028 Data Centres will consume 31% of Ireland’s electricity, complicating our ability to respond to the climate crisis. A misconception exists where the digital is somehow separate from the real. But digital is physical and digital costs the earth. We collect. We create. We Store. And then we don’t use. While digital is critical to everyday life, up to 90% of digital data is not used. Words, music, images, films, videos, software…..they all end up in the cloud. Most data is like single use, throwaway plastic. So why does our nation facilitate 90% digital waste? And why is our land, public infrastructure and national grid devoted to multinational digital corporations to make multi-millions of dollars while they offshore their energy consumption and carbon emissions on our island?
Filmed at a fruit farm in Co Waterford and at a data centre in Grange Caste Business Park Dublin, Trespass points to the history of an orchard that once existed where this data centre now stands. Aiming to challenge our ideas of digital location and the norms of physical invasion of space, a drone was repurposed to carry a micro projector and flown around the data center, projecting the film of the orchard onto the exterior walls.
For more information see: www.katienolanartist.com
