The Cost of a Click

Visualizing the impact of data centers.

Role
Sole designer
Timeline
3 weeks
Tools
Blender
ExperienceA barcode printed with the words “The Cost of a Click” on grey.

Marketing materials

Tickets for the event are printed on recycled graphics cards to help the visitor understand the amount of e-waste produced. Each ticket is printed like a receipt, continuing the motif of how much data centers cost. This motif of cost and receipt is repeated throughout the event signage and promotional materials.

“Exploring the buildings powering the internet, the resources they consume, and the communities reshaped by their growth,” beside an aerial photograph of a data center.
A grey ticket envelope printed with a barcode and “The Cost of a Click.”
A graphics-card ticket sliding out of its envelope, and the card and envelope laid flat beside it.
A recycled graphics card with a receipt-paper ticket attached, captioned “Event tickets will be printed on receipt paper on recycled GPUs.”
Rows of graphics-card tickets laid out on a diagonal.
The ticket’s “Digital Consumption Receipt”: searches, AI prompts and streaming itemized against today’s shared costs in water, electricity, emissions and asthma cases, with a total due of $20,000,000,000 a year by 2030 — paid by everyone, tip not included. Admit one, 15–17 Nov 2026, The Rossi Gallery.
Street banners hanging among autumn trees, printed with the barcode title and data center statistics.
A billboard on a park fence: “The Cost of a Click — The impact of data centers. 15–17 Nov 2026, The Rossi Gallery.”
Three tall banners on a white building, the center one reading “The Cost of a Click — Now showing,” flanked by statistics about data centers.

The experience

The room is intended to feel as if the visitor is inside a data center, with server racks, the loud ambient noise of hundreds of computer fans, and screens intermixed throughout.

A dim aisle between server racks, with lit panels set into the racks and visitors walking through.
Visitors facing screens set among the server racks: a dithered image of billowing smoke, and a column of water-use statistics.

The screens

Some screens present the cost of one particular aspect of a data center. These screens use abstract, dithered visuals: water, fog, sparks, and cars are all transformed into a medium that is more machine-readable and less human-friendly. Other screens show a constant stream of data on what data centers are impacting right now. It never stops updating, just like a data center’s never-ending consumption.

A visitor in the aisle beside a screen of scrolling dithered characters, with the main screen glowing at the far end.

The main screen

Visitors are then ushered toward the main screen, a 3D view of a data center complex. Each main area of the complex displays different information about its consumption and impact.

Visitors before the main screen: a 3D data center campus labelled “Main Server Hall,” with readouts for power, power per rack, temperature and noise.

The offering

In front of the main screen, visitors find a pile of used graphics cards, where they return their graphics-card ticket. It demonstrates the idea of consumption as a growing heap of once-used tech accumulates in front of the ever-hungry data center. It also serves as a religious motif: visitors can be seen making an offering at the altar of the data center, fueling its ever-growing need for electronics.

A heap of discarded graphics cards behind a railing beneath the main screen.
A cutaway view of the whole room: rows of server racks with inset screens leading to the main screen.
A top-down plan of the room: a long central aisle between rows of racks, ending at the main screen.

Reflection

A single search carries a hidden cost in water, power, and electronic waste. Cost of a Click turns that invisible toll into a room you can feel, from a ticket printed on a dead graphics card to an altar of discarded hardware. The hard part was making the data land emotionally without lecturing; every motif had to carry the argument on its own. If the exhibit were built, the real measure of success wouldn’t be how impressive it looks, but whether visitors leave more aware of the cost of their own clicks.