grounding the cloud

Data storage in the cloud or the use of chatbots based on generative AI, all of these digital habits we find self-evident. Yet they have major ecological consequences. Just think of the energy consumption of data centres, the use of raw materials for hardware, and the ever-growing amount of e-waste. What opportunities are there to reduce the (physical) impact of our virtual data? How can we use and reuse digital technology within the limits of our planet, and how can we challenge our ideas about technological progress, innovation, ownership and growth in an intersectional way?

With this open call, the Fund encourages projects that make the ecological (and therefore also social) impact of digital technologies and data consumption tangible, question it, and put alternative working methods into practice. We want to support creative making and thinking processes relating to topics such as regenerative culture, degrowth, low-tech, the reuse of obsolete hardware, and responsibility for the technologies we use within digital culture.