The internet is an ocean of data, 2026
videos, monologue, fishnet stockings, braided electrical wire, water bottle
Click to load imageAda Ada Ada is speaking on a stage in a very wet look. Photo by Aslaug Gravfort.
To reduce website CO2e emissions, project images need to be manually loaded.
Click to load imageAda Ada Ada is looking down on a stage in a very wet look. Photo by Alfonso Gutíerrez.
To reduce website CO2e emissions, project images need to be manually loaded.
Click to load imageAda Ada Ada is speaking to a crowd with black and white videos in the back. Photo by Frida Gregersen.
To reduce website CO2e emissions, project images need to be manually loaded.
Click to load imageAda Ada Ada is speaking on a stage with self-portrait videos in the back. Photo by Alfonso Gutíerrez.
To reduce website CO2e emissions, project images need to be manually loaded.
Click to load imageAda Ada Ada is speaking with her hand raised on a stage. Photo by Frida Gregersen.
To reduce website CO2e emissions, project images need to be manually loaded.
Click to load imageAda Ada Ada has her back to the crowd while looking at a video collage of TikToks made by Palestinian people. Photo by Alfonso Gutíerrez.
To reduce website CO2e emissions, project images need to be manually loaded.
About
'The internet is an ocean of data' is a hydrofeminist performative lecture about the many interconnections between water and cyberspace.
Over the course of 30 minutes, I perform a self-written monologue about how cyberspace is interlinked with the water cycle on which humans depend. The lecture draws connections between The Little Mermaid, undersea internet cables, data centres, ice bucket challenges, ice facials, bottle flips, AI-generated wet t-shirt contests, imploding submarines filled with billionaires on the hunt for Titanic, people in Gaza posting videos on TikTok and human life itself.
As I perform the monologue, a screen behind me concurrently updates its visuals to match the current topic of the monologue. Each visual is a moving collage containing a collection of videos running in a loop. The videos are all footage found on the internet through hours and hours of online archaeology. The videos range from old to new, popular to obscure, recorded to AI-generated, hilarious to haunting.
The audio from the videos is run through a filter that make them sound like they are being played underwater. In the background, a simple synth soundscape is being live generated alongside obfuscated sounds of waves.
The performative lecture brings the audience into the feeling of swimming in the ocean that is the Internet. The monologue is partly written as a stream-of-consciousness text, drawing immediate connections between a multitude of topics. Every fact, story, video, sound and movement is overwhelming, yet relationally educational. There seems to always be more content, and yet what remains between the audience and myself is the human connection. The performative lecture ends by reminding us that while the Internet is an ocean of data, human existence is an ocean of emotion.
The collages in the lecture are composited with Premiere Pro and put together in a Keynote presentation. The videos themselves are trawled from various online sources. The audio is produced and processed in Ableton Live.
Exhibitions & performances
- —Performance. CPH STAGE @ Skuespilhusets Foyer, Copenhagen, Denmark.