Analysis, Exposure and Addition: The Aesthetic and Ecological Logics of Joana Moll’s Carbolytics

Matthew Fuller

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Despite their ubiquity and relevance, data collection practices remain opaque and their carbon footprint has rarely been investigated. What is more, data collection is a key resource in the global supply chain of AdTech, the primary business model of the data economy system. The Carbolytics project, developed by artist and researcher Joana Moll in collaboration with researchers from the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre, is a way of understanding the collective existence of cookies and their role in the outsourced production of carbon dioxide. The interactive web-based installation shows the average global volume of cookie traffic in real time and demonstrates how cookies parasitize user devices to extract not only personal data but also energy. Or, in the words of Matthew Fuller: in digital capitalism, the myth of the invisible hand of the market has been replaced by the reality of the partially visible cookie.

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Matthew Fuller: Analysis, Exposure and Addition: The Aesthetic and Ecological Logics of Joana Moll’s Carbolytics
PostScriptUM #40
Series edited by Janez Fakin Janša
Publisher: Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana
Represented by: Marcela Okretič
Proofreading: Miha Šuštar
Design: Luka Umek
Layout: Sonja Grdina
Text commissioned by: Sónar+D Barcelona and Aksioma
Cover image: Joana Moll
(c) Aksioma | All text and image rights reserved by the author | Ljubljana 2022
Print on Demand: Lulu.com | www.lulu.com
Supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and
the Municipality of Ljubljana
Part of Tactics & Practice #12: New Extractivism
Carbolytics is an Aksioma commission realised within the framework of konS – Platform for Contemporary Investigative Art

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