Data Compass EN
Introduction
The wiki for digital sustainability documents the insights gleaned by the Network for Sustainable Digital Cultural Practice. The network was initiated by Prater Galerie and is part of the 2024 annual program COPY PASTE WASTE, organised by Prater Digital.
Alongside best practice examples, we offer tips and tricks for the everyday use of digital resources as well as links to more in-depth research.
We are aware that digital technologies are in a process of continual change and further development, meaning that the content of this wiki is subject to change. We invite you to contribute further insights and novel findings. Please contact Prater Galerie at info@pratergalerie.de.
Annual program COPY PASTE WASTE
Every day, we spend hours on the internet via our computers or smartphones: emails, streaming services, online banking, social media, messenger service and AI assistants are all part and parcel of our daily lives. Documents, photos and screenshots are saved on hard drives and in clouds. Everything works so seamlessly that the digital world appears to be invisible, boundless and immaterial. But physical infrastructure is concealed behind every click, using energy and producing emissions. It is a truly global structure with myriad branches: satellites, underwater cables, routers, data centres, platforms and providers enable us to use our many devices, apps, software and on-demand services. And it takes a real effort of brain power even to visualise these interconnected networks. Things get even more complicated when trying to understand the sustainability aspects of the network.
The interdisciplinary annual program COPY PASTE WASTE at Prater Digital focussed on the overproduction of digital data and aimed to develop models of mindful digital activity. Besides political and structural solutions, we placed special attention on the scope of action users have in their everyday lives.
Network for sustainable digital cultural practice
In the network, we first examined our digital work structures and production processes, identified problem areas and questioned our actions. When and where is data stored automatically? Where do we generate redundant data ourselves? What kind of data is of high quality and worth sharing, and what data can be deleted? We also thought of opportunities for change. How can we condense, interlink and save important data in a sensible way? In this wiki, we summarise the various topics and aspects of our network meetings. In doing so, we hope to present helpful suggestions for a resource-efficient digital practice.
The network meetings were attended by: Jan Menden and Sophie Gruber (HAU4), Peggy Schoenegge (peer to space), Alistair Alexander (reclaimed.systems and Gallery Climate Coalition), Barbora Trnková and Tomáš Javůrek (ScreenSaverGallery), Michael Voit (Cleaner Web), Julia Schmelzer (Pylon Lab), Pita Arreola-Burns und Elliott Burns Offsite Project and the team at Prater Galerie.
Digital sustainability
What does digital sustainability mean?
Digital sustainability has multiple layers and meanings. On the one hand, it addresses the impact of digital infrastructure on the environment and on us, but on the other hand it can also mean the pursuit of a sustainable kind of digitalisation – i.e., building infrastructure that can be maintained in the long term. The term also alludes to the role of digital technologies in fighting the climate crisis. Last but not least, it refers to the question how digital goods can be preserved for future generations.
The Expert Talks during the annual program COPY PASTE WASTE gave introductions into various aspects of the topic. Rainer Rehak distinguished between digital sustainability and sustainable digitalisation. Valerie Wollinger and Christos Varvantakis from Wikimedia Germany spoke about the idea of Open Link Data and the preservation of digital goods.
As is the case with the topic of sustainability in general, digital sustainability bridges various dimensions – ecological, social and economic ones. That means that using the internet does not just impact the climate but also human rights, housing, sustainable economic growth and so on. In her talk, Maya Richmann discussed the relationship between internet infrastructure and digital rights.
How does digital infrastructure cause emissions in the first place?
The digital may seem intangible, but it is firmly rooted in our physical world. Digital infrastructure consists of devices, buildings, cables, metals, rare earths, rubber, plastic, concrete and much else. The production and disposal of end devices causes the majority of CO2 emissions, but the construction of data processing centres consumes a lot of building material and generates further emissions as well. Moreover, that kind of infrastructure requires a constant supply of electricity. A lot of water is required to cool data centres, and this heated water is then released into the natural environment. This affects local ecosystems. Digital infrastructure already causes nearly 4 per cent of worldwide CO2 emissions – that is more than commercial air traffic.[1] The rapid implementation and establishment of AI technologies will lead to further surges in energy consumption, meaning that digital sustainability plays an increasingly important role for the climate.
The internet of today was “built” to incorporate as much data as possible. The logic of the data economy shapes the entire network architecture and drives the expenditure of energy, water and further resources. Thus, it is an underlying politics that systematically encourages an excess of data and thus greater energy consumption. We addressed the extractivist operating principles of tech companies and their consequences for sustainability in the Expert Talk with Joana Moll.
The internet is an enormous infrastructure that is at once decentralised and monopolised by just a handful of tech companies. So who is responsible for making the internet sustainable? This is a structural and political problem that requires the attention of lawmakers and large tech companies. But there are already opportunities for users to reach a more sustainable practice within the current system today. As with all kinds of sustainable transformation, we must pool efforts from the ground up and the top down. That is why we in the network have asked ourselves where we as institutions and users can start to enforce change.
In particular, we examined the data usage that we cause by our own actions and how we deal with excess data.
Imprint
Text: Tereza Havlíková und Katharina von Hagenow; German Editing: Carola Köhler; English Translation: Diana Thun; Einfache Sprache Translation: Maria Calow; Graphics: Tobias Wenig und Karolina Pietrzyk; Digital Guide (Digitaler Lotse): Michael Voit; Team Prater Galerie: Lena Prents (Director of Prater Galerie), Sigrid Melchior (Project Management), Marlene Bart, Helena Doppelbauer
We would like to thank all network participants for the productive exchange and well-founded contributions that have flowed into this wiki.
COPY PASTE WASTE is a project of the municipal Prater Gallery, an institution of the Pankow district office of Berlin. It is kindly supported by the Bezirkskulturfonds (BKF), the Fonds Ausstellungsvergütungen für bildende Künstler:innen (FABiK), the Ausstellungsfonds Kommunale Galerien (KoGa) of the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion, and the E.ON Foundation.
External links: This wiki contains links to third-party websites ("external links"). These websites are subject to the liability of the respective operators.