Rodrigo Cardoso

Decaying Data is an interactive installation exploring the ecological cost and permanence of digital data. Visitors are invited to give away a small piece of personal data: a word, a thought, a memory, a lie... Their message is temporarily stored and displayed, as would happen in a computer server, but only as enough energy is available.

The installation is controlled by a series of mud-based microbial fuel cells – electricity derived from bacteria in the soil – which power an electronic switch. When the mud cells reach a certain charge, the switch activates, allowing new data to be processed. As the mud cells discharge, the displayed data decays until it has been erased from the server and screen. After this slow, organic erasure, the cycle can begin again.

Decaying Data proposes that increases in energy efficiency, including “green growth” narratives, will only matter if coupled with extensive cutbacks in consumption. As such, a meaningful ecological transition requires a substantial behavioural change, shifting us away from the growing demand for energy-intensive and environmentally-damaging technologies. The installation offers a physical alternative to the myth of the immaterial “cloud,” inviting digital degrowth and the radical act of deletion.