We often talk about how we can ‘bridge the gap’ in the data centre industry, appealing to a wider talent pool and ensuring end-users are aware of how critical this infrastructure is to our everyday lives.
I was recently scrolling LinkedIn when a woman standing inside a data centre wearing a yellow dress caught my eye. The garment was made entirely from data centre materials, designed to ‘bring the internet to life’. Genius, in my opinion.
UK fashion designer, Maximilian Raynor – in partnership with Equinix – was behind this unique creation, made solely of materials sourced from one of Equinix’s London data centres. The design exudes brilliance in its bid to position data centres and their digital infrastructure in front of the everyday consumer.
‘The personification of the Internet herself’ is an example of how the Internet is not just a behind-the-scenes virtual concept, but physical infrastructure we rely on. This image brings data centres to life and forces people to understand how these materials are responsible for making digital connections possible. Intertwining the virtual and the reality adds a new dimension to how we view data centres and their capabilities, whilst highlighting them as the backbone of modern infrastructure.
Raynor explained his thinking behind his creation: “The garment tells two stories. The first is the immediate character which is the personification of the Internet and the second is one of repurposing and how we can all think about unconventional materials. The narrative of craft and making and the slower approach to design runs through the project as a whole. The dress is made of a mixture of Cat 5 and fibre optic cables as well as metal washers and bolts that are used at an Equinix data centre. It creates an interesting contrast of the Internet and data which we perceive as so futuristic and then these almost historical techniques such as basket weaving and crochet that feel from a different time. The project spans history in that sense as something both historic and futuristic.”
Bruce Owen, President EMEA, Equinix, commented: “By bridging the gap between physical and virtual, we wanted to create something tangible that works as a unique talking point to highlight the many thousands of connections that are created to support economies and societies every day. The design pays homage to the physicality of the vital infrastructure that makes up the Internet. Rather than some sort of weird magic or unexplainable force that just happens to work, it’s a physical, intricate network of cables, traversing land and sea and creating physical connections housed in data centres worldwide.”
Owen puts it perfectly when he describes the infrastructure spanning land and sea, depicting the journey of the data and creating a visual image people can relate to, accentuated by the design. He emphasises the inner workings of the technology and the lengths it goes to so we’re able to maintain virtual relationships – emphasising data centres as essential to the modern age.
