In the last decade, the world has experienced unprecedented production and consumption of data. According to International Data Corporation (IDC), global data will grow by 23 percent annually from 2020 to 2025. The data-driven developments in planning, climate science, and healthcare, as well as the further implementation of AI, the Internet of Things, and the Metaverse, will only exacerbate this condition. Every byte of data has an impact. The carbon footprint of digital devices, the internet, and the infrastructures supporting them account for about 3.7% of global greenhouse emissions, a percentage that, according to some estimates, will double by 2025. Whereas corporations, industries, and institutions have significant responsibility and agency, individual data consumption, particularly in Western countries, is also responsible for the current state of affairs. We are contributing to environmental destruction when taking and posting selfies, sending emails, streaming videos, playing video games or scrolling through screens. Even the unnecessary images we keep in storage, out of sight, release tonnes of CO2.

Screens connect to the cloud. Far from immaterial, this cloud is made of data centers, fiber optic cables, factories, and minerals that are transformed into desirable consumer objects and mediate the interruptible supply of images we consume daily. Companies and users crave even faster circulation and consumption of information. Yet these connected and low latency futures are at the expense of environmental destruction and dispossession of communities worldwide, whose territories and bodies are rendered disposable in the name of progress. From November 28th to December 4th, participants of Territorio Ectoplasma gathered at Medialab Matadero to comprehend the convoluted workings of the digital infrastructures and explore imminent futures non-dependent on extractivist industries. Together with local and international speakers, including Estrella Alfaro, Lara Almarcegui, Bartlebooth, Ibiye Camp, JoámEvans/Montescola, Mel Hogan, Institute for Postnatural Studies, Sebastian Lehuede, Thandi Loewenson, Victor M. Sanz, Michael Marder, Margarida Mendes, Godofredo Pereira, Naomi Rincon Gallardo, Rafico Ruiz, and Chen-Yu Wang, we will engage in conversations, debates, enjoy lectures, screenings, and performances, conduct field trips and participate in workshops, rituals, and celebrations. We will engage with situated, embodied, open-ended, and collaborative practices leading to a different way of being in the world.

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