“Northness”: Poetic Visualization of Data Infrastructure Inequality

“Northness” is an installation that maps the latitudes of the servers that host the most popular websites in Brazil. Composed of three-dimensional typographic sculptures, a touch screen and projection, the work allows the public to visualize and locate the servers of the one hundred most accessed websites in Brazil. This installation is part of research in artistic data visualization that addresses issues of the data infrastructure sustaining our society, highlighting the Global North’s dominance in data flows. “Northness” was featured in the exhibition “Numerical Existence: Emergencies,” which took place in 2024 at the Futuros Cultural Center in Brazil.