With my head in the clouds
February 2023Thesis publication
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-------------I lie with my back in the middle of a large field full of soft grass. While they lightly tickle me in the wind, I look at the blue field in front of me. Birds fly by, and sometimes I see aeroplanes in the distance leaving white trails as if they are revealing the rails they ride on. I feel the presence of the sun in the canvas. She warms my skin while I am letting in all other influences. She makes the grass feel softer, the sky bluer with the rays she scatters, and warms the wind that hugs my entire body.
Everything suddenly becomes cold. The warm wind has become a cool breeze, the grass has begun to sting, and the sky has lost its rays. The cool breeze asks me if I would not prefer to leave this place. While I make all the considerations, the warm glow is suddenly back. I see a cloud gently moving forward. That thing that made me feel so uncomfortable now looks beautiful and soft. Will the cloud be softer than the grass? If I lay there, I would not get any green spots on my clothes. They will remain as white as the clouds themselves.
My phone vibrates. It is a notification from Gmail, and I read that someone made adjustments to an earlier version of my thesis stored in Google Drive. The message asks me if I would not prefer to leave this place. I sigh, another cloud that is hiding the sun.
In recent years, the digital cloud has become an increasingly omnipresent part of modern life. From storing and sharing data online to hosting entire applications and services, the cloud has revolutionised how we use and interact with technology. However, the digital cloud remains a complex and often poorly understood concept, which is blamed on the icon of the natural cloud; as the digital cloud does not float in the sky. The depiction of cloud storage embraces a fantasy of immateriality, while the digital cloud is heavy.
In this thesis I unpack the reality behind the digital cloud and connect this to the cycle of the natural cloud. The two clouds have a lot in common and we can learn from that connection.