00:09 For a long time we have created this image of the digital world as the cloud.
00:15 This space that is like thinking that what happens in the digital world is something ethereal,
00:19 that doesn’t take up any space and is flying over somewhere that we cannot see.
00:26 The project emerges from long-term research that has been carried out all over the world,
00:32 visiting data storage infrastructures.
00:35 It refers to how we are more and more able to generate more and more digital information,
00:41 but also to the problems that we are going to have to store it in the future.
00:45 Not just because it is complicated to have more and more data centres,
00:50 but also because these data centres also consume a lot of electricity
00:55 a lot of water and emit CO2.
00:58 These supercomputers when they perform a calculation have to write it in a storage system,
01:03 and normal storage systems are no good for this.
01:06 In fact, one of the main problems that we now face
01:09 is the storage of data resulting from scientific studies.
01:14 In theory, this data should be stored permanently
01:18 so that the experiment can be reproduced in the future.
01:24 The thing is that this is something that we are not going to be able to do for ever.
01:30 There will come a time when our storage systems just can’t go on,
01:37 we have to buy much larger storage systems.
01:41 But this is something that we are not going to be able to do permanently.
01:47 It’s true that industries like the one that the Physics Center deals with have certain very important motivations,
01:55 because they are trying to discover the origin of the universe and new vaccines or new systems of thought.
02:02 However, in turn we need to be aware of not only the huge amount of information,
02:09 but also of energy that is involved in these processes.
02:15 How can we carry on storing data, how can we use up less energy, how can we consume less water?
02:21 So one of the innovations that we have found in the sector was, for example,
02:27 the reuse of the heat that the servers emit and diffuse, for other uses.
02:43 A system that has been used in some places, like in Sweden (Luleå),
02:47 was to use heat to generate compost that worms could grow in.
02:54 And these worms served as food for hens. So we have something like a circular system.
03:02 We are going to connect up a series of devices, a series of micro-computers,
03:06 and we are going to use this heat to provide favourable conditions for worms.
03:12 So there’s going to be a Raspberry farm and they are going to transmit all the heat inside it.
03:18 Shiyu, who forms part of an artist residency, combines craftwork with technology,
03:24 and quite by chance she is helping us to turn this ‘quipu’ of wires into sensors
03:32 that are going to communicate with the worms inside. We’re going to see if it works.
03:39 This is the Medialab workshop.
03:41 The philosophy behind this is that it is a workshop where artists can transform the materials themselves
03:47 and learn production techniques.
03:50 These are Raspberries. What Raspberries do is harness this heat and transfer it to the soil
03:55 so that the worms can work faster on breaking down the organic matter.
04:00 And in the area on the inside we have copper; these wires are drawn inwards
04:07 and transmit heat evenly throughout the soil.
04:14 The worms arrive today so you’ll be able to see them.
04:17 What we have here is the nucleus of red wigglers.
04:22 This is a vegetable substrate, it’s worm humus, in actual fact.
04:26 They form part of a fundamental link for life on the planet,
04:29 by breaking down organic matter and providing plants
04:33 with all these new minerals.
04:36 Here we can see some of the simulations
04:38 that the team that works at the Physics Center is using.
04:42 And this entire Raspberry Pi system is what is generating this simulation of the universe.
04:48 So, the energy that we generate by visualising galaxies is feeding compost
04:55 with worms that can then create… that is creating life.
05:05 I think that we need to form multidisciplinary teams to build data centres,
05:10 because sometimes we only focus on the technological aspect
05:15 and there are many more things, especially now that we know that raw materials are not infinite.
05:23 We really need to acquire the perspective of other disciplines, so to speak,
05:28 and not just of the world of technology, which is what has taken precedence over everything else up to now.
05:35 Sustainability plays an important role.
05:38 So in everything relating to climate change, the climate crisis and so on,
05:44 skills play an important role.
05:47 So the development of skills to improve or make creative impact more effective.
05:55 And care is a very important topic.
06:01 When visitors come across the project in the exhibition hall they are going to see a video and a prototype.
06:06 The prototype is developed with a team that includes Claudia Paredes,
06:10 Fernando Fernández, Pablo del Río and the Medialab team, together with the Physics Center.
06:16 And a video that we have developed along with Locument, who are architects and filmmakers.
06:25 I think the main goal is actually to capture what actually is really datacenters
06:31 because we are all using it, but we always think it is the internet, there's a cloud, so something really not tangible
06:37 and we actually want to represent all of these activities which we are doing for the Internet,
06:43 they require much more like larger machines and equipment.
06:49 And it focuses on the ‘quipu’, which is an age-old device
06:54 that the Inca Empire used to store and pass on information.
07:00 This is a highly sophisticated technology.
07:03 By using different knots, types of strings and colours, an encoded system was created
07:10 through which a huge amount of information could be stored,
07:12 which can include poems, genealogies, accounts, taxes…
07:19 They are infrastructures that contain the keys
07:21 to understanding the history of the Inca Empire and nevertheless, we have no access to them
07:26 because we do not know the codes that they are governed by.
07:30 We often always think about technology as something that leads us towards the future
07:35 and we forget that there have already been extinct technologies.
07:38 The ‘quipu’, like the one that appears in the video, give us some clues
07:41 about what the future may be; these data centres, and boxes
07:44 that we won’t know how to activate and the information contained in them will be lost
07:52 or will lie dormant, or will be on another plane of reality.
07:55 We still don’t know, but we are not going to be able to access this.
07:57 So, the question is: what data are we going to keep?
08:01 Because not all of it can be kept.
08:07 Because society today faces multiple crises, they need creatives, they need artists,
08:14 they need people experienced in these creative practices to deal with these crises,
08:20 because they are always in processes of innovation,
08:25 as one might say, they are actually seeking in insecure situations to create something new from them.
08:34 So they have a particular skill to offer here.
Tabakalera 10
10:15
Tabakalera | Larruak eta izurrak
01:12
Tabakalera | ACTS - Máquinas de ingenio
03:22
Tabakalera | ACTS - 2020-2022 08:59
Tabakalera | ACTS - C. El punto justo del conflicto cognitivo
09:35
Tabakalera | ACTS - Sugar Detox Clinic
08:23
Tabakalera | ACTS - Exografías
10:44
Reconstrucción
09:00
Tabakalera | That Time
01:10
Tabakalera, el camino recorrido 11:14
Tabakalera | Julio Le Parc
01:08
Tabakalera | Evil Eye 00:40
Tabakalera | ACTS - 2020-2022 - promo 01:08
Tabakalera-denbora | Vincent Maraval
09:44
Tabakalera-denbora | Uxue Alberdi
08:14
Tabakalera-denbora | Ted Hope 08:53