Memory (2019) presents a satellite view of the Mesa Data Center in Arizona, a facility housing data from global applications such as iMessage and iCloud. Powered by numerous solar panels to process vast amounts of information, the data center embodies a growing, externalized vessel of memory as more individuals entrust their personal and collective memory to digital devices. In this poignant work, Tan Mu explores the profound shifts in our understanding of history, time, and identity. The monumental painting captures the paradox of our digital era: our most intimate memories are encoded, uploaded, and stored in the vast physical expanses of remote data centers. Juxtaposing intimacy with infinity, Memory softly narrates stories of interconnectedness and disconnection, love and isolation in the digital age.

Q: What inspired you to create Memory?

Tan Mu: Memory emerged from my ongoing interest in memory and satellite imagery. At the time, I was reflecting on memories that had become fragmented or partially lost due to trauma, which made me aware of my subconscious tendency to explore ideas of externalized and collective memory in my work. These personal motivations, rooted in a desire to transform disconnection into new forms of connection, continue to shape my practice. Memory examines the idea of externalized memory. As individuals upload personal data into data centers, these facilities become physical vessels that store humanity’s collective memory. The painting invites reflection on how human thoughts, emotions, and shared experiences are embedded within the physical and digital systems we build, as well as our fundamental drive to connect, record, and transcend limitations.

Q: How does externalizing memory into data centers influence our understanding of memory?

Tan Mu: Externalizing memory fundamentally changes how we store, share, and transmit both personal and collective experiences, while also reshaping how we understand memory itself. At its core, memory involves encoding, storing, and retrieving information. Our experiences and sensory inputs are gathered, processed, stored, and later recalled within the brain. Data centers function in a similar way, acting as an external memory system. Just as the brain stores memories, data centers store information generated by users, becoming repositories of collective memory. Information is encoded into digital formats and saved within these structures, and it is later accessed through networks, much like recalling memories from the mind. Both systems also share the condition of imperfect memory. Data can be lost or corrupted, just as human memory can fade, distort, or fragment over time due to trauma or the passage of years.

This relationship between internal and external memory forms the foundation of my exploration of the fabric of memory. Through painting, I weave these two systems together, examining their fragility, fluidity, and the ways information is constructed, stored, and transmitted across both biological and technological dimensions.

Q: How does the concept of “The Fabric of Memory” manifest in your work, and how is it connected to your later creations?

Tan Mu: I have been deeply engaged with the idea of the fabric of memory, which examines how technology reshapes the ways we preserve, distort, and recall memory. As we increasingly entrust personal and collective memories to digital devices, these systems form an expanded body that profoundly alters our understanding of history, time, and identity. This shift changes how memory is stored, shared, and transmitted. Within this framework, connections between individuals are woven together, forming a complex network created through both technological and biological means.

This network includes external memory systems such as logic circuits, submarine cables, and data centers, as well as internal memory structures like synapses, neural pathways, and the brain itself. Across works including Logic Circuit, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, the Signal series, Synapse, Emergence, and MRI, I explore this phenomenon through points, lines, and spatial volume. These works form a visual narrative that blends historical references with personal experience in the digital age, revealing the evolving patterns within memory’s fabric and encouraging viewers to reflect on the subtle dynamics that exist in between.

Q: What role do data centers play within information systems?

Tan Mu: When I painted the data center, I saw it as a transformation in how information is stored and transmitted. I understood it as a new kind of plate within an information system, a medium that carries and disseminates data. This idea connects directly to printmaking, one of the most influential areas of study during my university education in expanded media. Printmaking emphasizes process, particularly layering and repetition. Its history mirrors the evolution of communication technologies, marking shifts not only in art but also in how information is carried and distributed.

With the rise of digital media, the logic of printmaking has entered a new phase, where files and online content can be endlessly duplicated and shared. Data centers function as this contemporary plate, serving as sites where information and technology are recorded and circulated. In Memory, I depict the data center from a satellite perspective, presenting it as a flat plate embedded within a vast landscape. This perspective allows it to function as a crystallized form of human history, civilization, and collective memory.

Q: What visual language do you use to depict data centers, and why is it important to paint these physical technological structures?

Tan Mu: I often use a satellite perspective because an elevated viewpoint creates a sense of calm and introspection. Seeing from above allows us to step back and consider a subject’s broader significance, revealing layers that might otherwise remain hidden. In this painting, the data center appears as a flat data carrier within the composition, encouraging viewers to reflect on its function as an information vessel and its role within human memory.

My visual language balances representation and abstraction, focusing on the material presence of both technology and memory. In this work, I use a more representational approach to emphasize the physical reality of the data center itself. My practice is driven by a care for humanity and an interest in capturing defining moments of our time. Painting these technological structures serves two purposes. They act as time markers for key moments in history, and they function as documents for future archaeology. A painting, with its weight, scale, and texture, becomes a tangible form of externalized memory. I often think of myself as a human printer. By printing these moments through painting, I believe they are given endurance, presence, and meaning.