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Paper short abstract

Landscapes, humans and data centres are all bodies of water. The artwork THIRST/For Knowledge explores the new artificial ocean that flows through the internal material systems of AI data centres worldwide, focussing on a landscape in transition where an AI data centre is being built.

Paper long abstract

Reflecting on the research behind immersive intermedia artwork THIRST/For Knowledge, Kat Austen will explore the multi-sensory artistic methods used to interrogate changing landscapes and their complexation with technologies and industry. With an artistic practice embedded in site-specific research drawing on embodiment and acoustic ecology, Austen will elaborate on methods and mediations for getting to know a landscape and engaging with landscape transformations.

THIRST/For Knowledge is an immersive intermedia exploration of the hidden relationships between landscapes, humans and artificial intelligence. As AI’s demands surge, this artwork asks: what happens when we understand water as a fundamental relation between our bodies and those of the planet and technologies around us?

At the heart of the work are field recordings from Korea’s Solaseado site, where the country’s National AI Data Centre is being built. These disappearing landscape becomes the voice of transformation, carrying the memories of landscapes, human labour, and more-than-human agents. The visitor is immersed in the spatialised sounds of this transformation, as the riverbanks are excavated, levels drained and rerouted.

Combining sound, book publication and film, THIRST/For Knowledge traces the movement of water as a living archive of knowledge, exploitation, and resistance. Alongside site specific field recordings and interviews with local residents at the Solaseado site, THIRST/For Knowledge incorporates audio contributions from artists, scholars, and activists, such as Astrida Neimanis, Dasom Lee, Tu Nube Seca Mi Río, and Samantha Ndiwalana, mixing the details of local transformations with international contexts.