Exploration.135, Transatlantic Visions

Drawing inspiration from bathymetric archives related to the laying of the first transatlantic telegraph cable, Juliette Lusven explores our relationship with the world and technological interconnectivity through the lens of today’s undersea internet infrastructure.

Often described as the backbone of our connectivity, as nearly all our digital exchanges travel through this vast network of fiber-optic cables on the ocean floor, this infrastructure remains equally imperceptible, alluding to an underwater environment that is often inaccessible and still being mapped.

Created as part of the doctoral research-creation project Exploration.135, this exhibition examines this phenomenon of invisibility and data circulation by focusing on the Atlantic Ocean and the Web, articulating different materialities and scales through a body of installation work. Cable routes become a framework for geoperceptive and computational exploration of our hyperconnectivity, bringing together data flows, data visualization, underwater topography, and satellite imagery with microscopic captures of technological residue, sediments, and microfossils from the ocean floor.