Material Cloud. Techno-Essentialism in Media Art

The text is a discussion of new artistic form and theoretical reflection over techsphere: critical studies of the consequences of the information architecture and technical infrastructure (e.g. fibre-optic cables). It presents examples of researching the “prehistory of cloud” (Tung-Hui Hu) and creation of “internet landscapes” through artistic actions in geophysical space related to the functioning of the Internet. Research methods combine the following fields: geography, ecological activism and telematic art. Such attitude may be called techno-essentialism, as it consists in searching for the essence of phenomena metaphorised as non-material in techno-cultural rhetoric.