Abstract
In an era of algorithmic trading, ultra high speed fiber optic networks and increasing
cloud based data centers, Cloudscapes, seeks to explore the new infrastructure of New York City. An infrastructure, that is delineated along the miles of physical fiber
running across the city and mathematically networked among strategically placed
nodes. Perhaps this vital infrastructure is no less than the city’s neural network where the emission of a single signal, transmitted at the speed of light, is powerful enough to stop the city’s heart beat. Today, more than ever before, as we increasingly continue to develop our digital personas and computerize every possible behavior and activity, we’ve managed to collapse the physical space of the city and transform it, bit by bit into a digital city. And as this digital city liberates itself from the physical network city, through the infamous ‘cloud’, we are now faced with a greater challenge to map and analyze this new, so called prevailing cloud infrastructure. Thus, Cloudscapes, speculates the future of a digital New York City by investigating the spatial, virtual and digital ‘Networks’, exploring the interplay between the three main components of Cloud Infrastructure; ‘Fiber’, ‘Finance’ and
‘Frequency’.