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Short abstract

This paper analyzes data center scaling through the lens of solarities concept. Comparing Google’s cislunar "Suncatcher" with the low-tech subversive "Solar Protocol," I contrast visions of infinite extra-terrestrial scalability with elemental media practices rooted in planetary constraints.

Long abstract

As the rapid expansion of AI drives surge in energy consumption, the material footprint of data centers has become a concern for Media Studies and STS. Drawing on the "infrastructural turn" and the "elemental" perspective (Starosielski, 2015), paper situates digital communication within a broader environmental context. AI is an extractive industry (Crawford, 2021) and the current trajectory of media infrastructures faces a crisis of "scalability” (Tsing 2012).

This presentation explores responses to this crisis: the search for "non-carbon" energy sources to fuel the ever-growing demand for data. While the industry increasingly looks toward nuclear power (2025 Tech Trends Report), another shift is emerging: the relocation of data infrastructures into cislunar space to utilize solar energy.

Using ComparativeCaseStudy method, I compare two opposite case studies that utilize "the solar" to rethink infrastructural scale:

The "Suncatcher" Concept (Google) - cislunar data center initiative representing a logic of "infinite scalability", where the sun is treated as a boundless resource to sustain planetary-scale computation.

Solar Protocol (Tega Brain et al.) - an artistic, subversite "low-tech" media infrastructure governed by the logic of the sun’s availability.

The analysis is grounded in the theoretical framework of Solarities (After Oil Collective, 2022), viewing the sun not as a resource, but as a socio-political relationship. The study identifies two emerging models of digital consumption: one that practices outer-space expansionism, and another that advocates for practices rooted in planetary constraints. The results highlight how those two imaginaries redefine the relationship between information flow, energy consumption, and the planetary environment.