Created by Boris Meister at ECAL, Above the Cloud is an atlas about social networks archeology, death and digital marks left in distress on the internet. Boris attempts to present the complex subject and, above all, explain it by creating an object – book, both in its structure, images and layout.
I play with the general idea of the atlas and I use different languages (associations of images, illustrations, data visualisation) to create an “atmosphere” favorable to the understanding of the subject, and, in the end, make a book “object” which might have several levels of interpretation.
Over 6 million accounts on Facebook belong to dead people, what Boris refers to as “Ghosts” in the book. Semi-living digital beings that still interact with their “friends” by being tagged in photos or referenced, their profile is regularly updated. One example is one of Taylor Sauer who posted this on facebook 1 minute before she had a car accident and died: “I can’t discuss this now. Driving and facebooking is not safe! Haha.” Others mention last moments before their death, passing or suicide. Large collection of voices of the living dead, filling endless gigabytes of cloud storage.
No plans yet to make this book available for purchase although I highly encourage Boris, and so can you in the comments, to at least make a PDF available for our perusal.
Tutors: Jonas Vœgeli & Gilles Gavillet
ECAL / University of Art and Design, Lausanne Switzerland
Bachelor Graphic design
