Cloud Factories is an artistic research project that engages with landscapes designated as future data centre sites through counter-mapping, visual experimentation and print production.

The starting point for our research is the story of a hyperscale data centre project by Meta: When their plans to built an enormous data centre near the rural Dutch town of Zeewolde became public in 2022, a coalition of farmers, activists and local residents mobilised to stop the project. Soon after, regional authorities in Talavera de la Reina, a small city in a drought-affected and economically deprived region in Central Spain unveiled that Meta is planning build a large data centre on the outskirts of the city. Construction is due to start soon.

Our project seeks to give form to the multilayered histories, presents and futures inscribed to landscapes selected to host the ‘Cloud’. What is destroyed when (supposedly) ‘empty’ territories are transformed into the physical structures enabling our digital culture? And which alternative, regenerative publishing practices can emerge in dialogue with such landscapes?

In 2024 and 2025, we have conducted multiple site visits to both locations, complemented by conversations with local residents, activists and experts. This has resulted in a collection of photographs, cyanotype and risograph prints, experiments with soil inks and a zine.

In dialogue with participants, we will explore how to expand our research to other sites and ways of seeing.