C is for Cloud
cloud: of or pertaining to water vapor, an invisible gas that turns into liquid water droplets forming tiny particles that are floating in the air. cloud: as it relates to computing, a network of remote servers to store, manage, and process our data our data, communications virtually but exist everywhere "composed of multiple levels of code, no one person can see, let alone interpret...some of its layers are legible to human subjects — engineers, maintenance workers, hackers, everyday consumers — and others only to surveillance cameras, drones, or other sentient objects;” “just as the clouds above us, however formless or ethereal they may appear to be, are in fact made of matter — water molecules in various states of condensation and crystallization — the cloud of the digital is also relentlessly material.” how much water does it take to make a cloud? cloudy: covered or characterized by clouds. when there are too many clouds it becomes overcast; creates darkness, gloom, trouble; similar to fog. fog: a cloud that forms at ground level is called “fog.” like the fog that creates low visibility. a fog that clouds your day or to be stuck in a fog. can code create fog? cloud: as in living in the clouds; living in the cloud. data: pertaining to "the demand to gather and live with seemingly transparent data, in a range of sectors; living with data (policies, reports, cards and carding) that ostensibly prove that those communities living outside normalcy are verifiably outside normalcy; giving over data in exchange for capital." normalcy: to belong, as opposed to off the grid. normalcy: to be readable by the cloud. cloud: as social and cultural formation. cloud: “…a specifically ‘Anglo’ romanticization of cables and tubes...in some nations, infrastructure is regularly part of public referenda, so there’s no need to ‘de-mystify’ it. Similarly, in the developing world, where infrastructure is often buggy and people are not just its beneficiaries, but also its maintainers and last-mile service providers, these systems are part of everyday life. All over the world, there are cable-layers and data-center operators, cell-phone salesmen and e-waste handlers who have long possessed trade-specific knowledge about the Cloud’s presence and operations — knowledge that we’ve only recently come to valorize.” cloud: technically “software and services that run on the Internet, instead of locally on your computer. most cloud services can be accessed through a Web browser like Firefox or Google Chrome, and some companies offer dedicated mobile apps. Some examples of cloud services include Google Drive, Apple iCloud, Netflix, Yahoo Mail, Dropbox and Microsoft OneDrive…the advantage of the cloud is that you can access your information on any device with an Internet connection. it’s what allows you to make edits to a file in Google Docs on your home computer, and then pick up where you left off...” what cloud do you live in?
WORKS CITED:
the format of this issue is inspired by the historical poetics of saidiya hartman, “manual for general housework” in wayward lives, beautiful experiments: intimate histories of social upheaval (2019).
“cloud and field,” places journal, shannon mattern (2016)
“the cloud is material: on the environmental impacts of computation and data storage,” MIT Case Studies in Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing, steven gonzalez monserrate (2022)
"curiosities (my heart makes my head swim)," dear science and other stories, katherine mckittrick (2021)
Too Embarrassed to Ask: What Is 'The Cloud' and How Does It Work?, vox (2015)
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