Over 99% of transoceanic data traffic is carried across the oceans by undersea cables—these technologies comprise the backbone of the global internet. This presentation will focus on Surfacing, a digital map that enables users to traverse the social worlds of the cable system and the unseen cultural formations that sustain everyday internet connections. Surfacing is both a project of infrastructural visibility, revealing the geographies of internet systems, and a critical experiment in digital cartography that challenges existing modes of vertical and lateral movement.

Nicole Starosielski is an Assistant Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University Steinhardt.