Playfool Studio spotlights hidden digital labour in data centre cleaning game at the V&A
Visitors to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London vacuumed digital dust from an overheating data server in game installation The Server by design duo Playfool.
Handling a decommissioned data-centre vacuum formerly used in a data centre, players were tasked with vacuuming as much 'dust' as possible within 60 seconds from a replica data server.
The installation was designed to emulate the unseen physical labour tied to the technological infrastructure underpinning the AI boom, and to evoke the gamified optimisation strategies employed in Amazon fulfilment centres.
During their visit to one, the design duo "discovered the unique internal video games workers can play to gamify their tasks, displaying real-time performance rankings among peers".
The Server game emerged as a means of surfacing the often overlooked physical labour that goes into maintaining the ever-expanding material infrastructure fuelled by the rapid growth of AI.
"We often overlook the fact that technologies are based on a material foundation, subject to the forces of an ever-changing environment, and thus requiring constant upkeep after being brought into existence", Playfool's Daniel Coppen and Saki Maruyama told Dezeen.
Their installation consists of a replica of technology brand Nvidia's latest AI server and a vacuum module featuring a set of screens that visualise clouds of digital particulates and rank players' performance metrics.
It was intended to show that our relationship to the digital world is less frictionless than we might think.
"Behind the frictionless, smooth interfaces on our screens is a messy entanglement with the material world", the designers added.
Situated amid the priceless antiquities of the V&A, the installation draws a parallel between the hidden human labour that sustains the availability of both a museum's collections and the digital infrastructure we are increasingly dependent upon.
In this way, the game "serves as a reminder that all creation comes with an infinite responsibility of maintenance", the designers said.
"AI has been especially prone to this blind spot, due to both the black box nature of how it works and of the infrastructure behind it, from undersea fibre-optic cables to data centres", Coppen and Maruyama explained.
With the US set to double its data centre building to keep pace with the boom in AI, and spending on data centre infrastructure projected to top $800 billion per year globally in 2026, the designers hope The Server will help interrogate the responsibilities of care generated by the contemporary AI boom.
Commissioned by the V&A Museum's Emerging Designer scheme, Playfool intended for The Server installation to help create discussions around AI and digital caregiving such as cleaning and maintenance.
"We believe games are a powerful medium to provoke conversation about these complex topics, crystallising experiences and ideas through introducing new forms of agency", Playfool said.
For more stories related to AI data centres, see this toy from Basrua that emits an “ear piercing hum” when squeezed, this 60-building data centre by Gensler and this East London data centre approved as part of Truman Brewery masterplan.
The Server exhibition took place from 12 to 18 September at The V&A. For more events in architecture and design, visit Dezeen Events Guide.
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