MDR, 2017

MDR (Micro Data Repository) consists of a hanging stack of three aluminum prints and a WiFi Router hosting an openly accessible local file sharing platform.

The work examines an area between the Utah Lake and the Great Salt Lake, where within a few miles the world’s deepest copper mine and the perhaps largest data center are located. The latter is the NSA's infamous Utah Data Center, also known as Bumblehive, ICCNCI, or formerly Massive Data Repository, which acts as the work’s eponym.

The prints are reminiscent of desert landscapes, extra-terrestrial terrains, or the rigid, logical highways of printed circuit boards (PCB). Algorithmically composed, their appropriated pictorial material stems -respective to their logical arrangement within the hierarchy- from the data center’s and the Kennecott mine’s geospatial arrangement; deconstructed versions of blueprints of the data center; and graphical materials, diagrams, symbols stemming from leaks regarding the data center’s usage within the larger surveillance complex.

A WiFi file sharing platform is hosted to provide a broad set of materials to counter the rapidly growing means of surveillance from state and corporate actors, especially under the imminent dangers of the current government. The collection includes essays, interviews, hands-on instructions, information on civil liberties and rights, but also due to its participatory nature, it is open to any uploads and contributions from the public.

The public is invited to participate by connecting, downloading, as well as contributing and sharing content to and from the platform with any WiFi-capable device, such as their smartphones, laptops, tablets, etc. The network is operating locally and is not connected to the Internet.