does cloud compute (ever) precipitate

Curators

Phreaking Collective

This show explores the hidden infrastructures that shape our lives, bringing materiality to the ethereal. It explores our relationship with the monoliths that are waking up, the environmental strain, the invisible human labour, and the worries of pooled resources in an unreturning atmosphere.

Working across installations, sound works, generative systems and computational artwork, the exhibition examines the quiet romance in technological convenience.

The Cloud, an unseen network of servers, energy and labour - is made tangible, visible and audible. The works confront the vast systems that silently maintain our lives, data centres that feed on our energy and attention and the dependent relationship we have, the systems behind each upload, generation and stream.

Running alongside the show is a series of talks, workshops, discussions, film screenings and performances where visitors are invited to look deeper into the unsung systems shaping our lives, and reflect on the strange romance and hidden dependencies that define our connection to the cloud.

Phreaking Collective is a London-based group of emerging computational artists working across code, sculpture, sound, installation, and digital media. Formed in 2025, the collective takes its name from phreaking, a term initially used to describe the subversive practice of hacking telephone systems in the 1960s and 70s. Drawing from this lineage of creative mischief and network disruption, the collective reclaims the term as a gesture toward experimentation, resistance, and intimacy within digital systems.