AI data centres are bodies of water. THIRST/For Knowledge explores the new artificial ocean that flows through the internal material systems AI data centres worldwide.
THIRST/For Knowledge is an immersive intermedia exploration of the hidden, watery relationships between landscapes, humans and artificial intelligence. As AI’s demand for water surges, cooling vast server farms and reshaping ecosystems, this artwork asks: what happens when we understand water as a fundamental relation between our bodies and those of the planet and technologies around us? How can we hear its stories, and what do its currents reveal about power, memory, and survival.
At the heart of the work are field recordings from Korea’s Solaseado site, where the country’s National AI Data Centre is being built. These disappearing rivers become the voice of transformation, carrying the memories of landscapes, human labour, and more-than-human agents. The visitor is immersed in the spatialised sounds of this transformation, as the riverbanks are excavated, levels drained and rerouted.
Combining sound, book publication and film, THIRST/For Knowledge traces the movement of water as a living archive of knowledge, exploitation, and resistance. Alongside site specific field recordings and interviews with local residents at the Solaseado site, THIRST/For Knowledge incorporates audio contributions from artists, scholars, and activists, such as Astrida Neimanis, Dasom Lee, Tu Nube Seca Mi Río, and Samantha Ndiwalana, mixing the details of local transformations with international contexts.
The artwork mediates between the watery bodies of visitors and those of artificial intelligences, allowing its audience to interact with the transforming watery landscapes in which data centres are constructed. Weaving together ecosystems, AI’s resource demands, and sociotechnical structures, THIRST/For Knowledge reveals how the flow and flux of water transcends borders between species, landscapes and technologies.
THIRST/ For Knowledge
an artwork by Kat Austen
Artist, Artistic Director and Editor: Kat Austen
Publication Editor: Paul O’Neill
Production and Research Assistant: Mina Kim
Video Ethnographer: Dongjoo Seo
Technological Coordination: Daniel Hengst
Graphic Design: Fara Peluso
THIRST/For Knowledge project creation and production supported by ACC.
Image: Fara Peluso / Kat Austen