Seeing the Data Center: Photovoice and Poetic Inquiry in Everyday Life

Co-PI: Dr. Sandra Faulkner

This project uses photovoice and poetic inquiry to explore how data centers are experienced, imagined, and felt in everyday life. Working with graduate student co-researchers, the study invites participants to document how data infrastructures intersect with place, labor, environment, and community, particularly in regions where data centers are increasingly visible yet rarely discussed. By combining visual storytelling and poetic reflection, the project foregrounds lived experience and meaning-making, offering a human-centered perspective on data infrastructures that are often rendered invisible in technical and policy discourse.