English and Creative Writing

Photo of Dr Alexander R. E. Taylor

Dr Alexander R. E. Taylor

Senior Lecturer in Communications

A.R.E.Taylor@exeter.ac.uk

4992

01392 724992

Overview

Email: a.r.e.taylor@exeter.ac.uk Twitter: @alexretaylor LinkedIn: @aretaylor   Office:  Office 1, White House, Thornlea, Exeter, EX4 4LA, UK   Office Hours: Mondays, 14:00 - 15:00. Please email to book an appointment   I'm an anthropologist of data and communications infrastructure. I work at the intersection of critical data studies, visual anthropology, infrastructure studies and the emerging field of critical outer space studies. My research concentrates on the material and environmental dimensions of 'cloud' storage and internet infrastructure, with a focus on the data centre industry and the space sector. I'm especially interested in the failure and breakdown of internet infrastructure. I have conducted fieldwork with data centre providers, resilience and preparedness practitioners and space sector professionals. My methods are ethnographic, media-archaeological and historical-archival.   I'm the Principal Investigator of the British Academy-funded project Sustainable ICTs in the Digitised University. I'm also an Editor for the Journal of Extreme Anthropology and a founding member of the Social Studies of Outer Space (SSOS) Network, a research network joining social scientists working on topics related to outer space. I’m the founder of the Cambridge Infrastructure Resilience Group, a cross-disciplinary research network that brings scholars together with industry leaders, security practitioners and policymakers to explore critical infrastructure protection in relation to emerging global catastrophic risks.   My work has been funded by the Royal Anthropological Institute, The Royal Geographical Society and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). My work has been published in journals such as The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, New Media & Society, Ephemera, Culture Machine and Roadsides, and edited collections such as the Routledge Companion to Media Anthropology and Energy Futures: Anthropocene Challenges, Emerging Technologies and Everyday Life.   I have also written for Failed Architecture, The Conversation and The Resilience Shift, among others.   Previously, I was the Marconi Fellow in the History and Science of Wireless Communication at the University of Oxford. I completed my PhD in Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge, for which I received the Royal Anthropological Institute’s Radcliffe-Brown Sutasoma Award.   My research interests include: data, technology, futures, outer space, techno-apocalyptic narratives, digital preservation, slow computing, digital sustainability, pre-digital nostalgia and analogue media.  

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Supervision

I invite inquiries from potential PhD students who are thinking of working on any relevant subject that falls within my areas of interest:
  • Digital media and communications infrastructure
  • Data centres (geopolitics, security, environmental impact)
  • Cloud computing
  • Film streaming / digital distribution infrastructure
  • Techno-apocalyptic narratives
  • Critical data studies
  • Digital materialities (labour, e-waste, infrastructure)
  • Data-driven and algorithmic media (e.g. Netflix recommendation systems)
  • Pre-digital nostalgia
  • Digital detoxing/disengagement
  • Media addiction (binge-watching)
  • Digital sustainability (carbon relations of media consumption)
  • Social studies of outer space 
If you have only vague ideas for a project in any of these or related areas, I might be able to suggest something that would build on your interests and skills. Please feel free to get in touch.   For more information about pursuing a PhD in Communications at the University of Exeter, and for guidelines on writing a research proposal, please visit this page: https://www.exeter.ac.uk/pg-research/apply/   Your research proposal should be c. 2000 words. A clearly set out proposal should cover the following elements:
  1. Clarity of presentation - what research questions will the project explore, and what methods will be used to do this - this should be intellectually rigorous but jargon free.
  2. Importance/Originality - what is distinctive about the proposed project, how does it both build upon, and extend, existing conceptual thinking or creative practice?
  3. Fit to Scheme, Fit to student - what evidence can the proposal offer that there is a strong fit to supervisory expertise at Exeter, why are you the person to take this project on?  Beyond gaining a PhD, what will you gain from undertaking the project?
  4. Feasibility - is the project well planned, and scaled appropriately to be completed within 3 years?
Depending on the funding/programme for which you are applying, you may also need:
  • A cover letter that is no more than two pages
  • A letter from two different referees
  • A transcript (in English or a certified translation) giving full details of subjects studied and grades/marks obtained
  • English language proficiency results
If you would to be supervised by me, please try to contact me at least four weeks before you apply (and before the deadline).

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Publications

Copyright Notice: Any articles made available for download are for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the copyright holder.

| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 |

2023

2022

2021

  • Taylor ARE, Velkova J. (2021) Sensing Data Centres, Sensing In/Security: Sensors as Transnational Security Infrastructures, Mattering Press, 287-298.
  • Taylor ARE. (2021) Standing by for Data Loss: Failure, Preparedness and the Cloud, Ephemera: Theory and Politics in Organization, volume 21(1), pages 59-93.
  • Taylor ARE. (2021) Future‐proof: Bunkered Data Centres and the Selling of Ultra‐secure Cloud Storage, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, volume 27, no. S1, pages 76-94, DOI:10.1111/1467-9655.13481.

2020

  • Taylor ARE. (2020) Keeping Us Connected – Data Centres as Critical Infrastructures.
  • Taylor ARE. (2020) Clouds of Failure.
  • Taylor ARE. (2020) Why going digital in pandemic times might not be as green as you think.
  • Taylor ARE. (2020) Space Weather as a Threat to Critical Infrastructure, Roadsides, volume 003, pages 63-72, DOI:10.26034/roadsides-202000309. [PDF]

2019

  • Taylor ARE. (2019) The Data Center as Technological Wilderness, Culture Machine, volume 18, pages 1-30.

2018

  • Taylor ARE. (2018) ‘Turn Off, Shut Down, Log Out’: On Offlinism.
  • Taylor ARE. (2018) The Technoaesthetics of Data Centre "White Space", Imaginations: Journal of Cross-Cultural Image Studies, volume 8(2), pages 42-54, DOI:10.17742/IMAGE.LD.8.2.5.
  • Taylor ARE. (2018) Cloud Security for Anthropologists.
  • Taylor ARE. (2018) Failover Architectures: The Infrastructural Excess of the Data Centre Industry.
  • Taylor ARE. (2018) Google and Facebook won’t rule the world – if we don’t buy their fantasies about big data.

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External impact and engagement


Media

January 2024: Launching the STS of Spaceports

A short article written for STS Backchannels and published on 22 January 2024. Co-authored with Richard Tutton, Pippa Goldshmidt, Eleanor Armstrong, Mark Presley and Matjaz Vidmar. Available online here.

December 2023: Space News article

A short article about written for Space News on 'Spaceports need social scientists'. Co-authored with Richard Tutton, Pippa Goldshmidt, Eleanor Armstrong, Mark Presley and Matjaz Vidmar. 27 December 2023. Here’s why. Available online here.

May 2023: The Environmental Impact of the Digital Humanities

An article exploring the environmental impact of the digital humanities for Learning on Screen’s Viewfinder Magazine, 122, 25 May 2023. Available online here.

October 2022: University of Oxford

'Tracing space weather disruptions to early radio communications in the Marconi Archives'

A short film was produced about the research I have been conducting with the Marconi Archives at the University of Oxford. It can be viewed here.

August – December 2021: ‘Geometries of the Cloud’ Photography Exhibition

Part of the ‘Global Conversations’ exhibition at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH), University of Cambridge.

January 2021: BBC World News

‘Turn off your camera during virtual meetings… it could help save the environment’

In January 2021 I was interviewed by the BBC World Service (Africa and Indonesia) for a news report on the carbon footprint of the data centre industry: https://www.bbc.com/afrique/monde-55815454

November 2020: Channel 4 (UK)

'Is Your Online Habit Killing the Planet?'

The November 2020 episode of Channel 4's investigative documentary series, Dispatches, was prompted by an article I wrote about the environmental impact of the internet during the pandemic. The article was published on 8 May 2020 by the Corona Times and is available here: https://www.coronatimes.net/going-digital-not-as-green-covid-19/

The Channel 4 documentary is available to view here: https://www.channel4.com/programmes/online-habits-killing-the-planet-dispatches/on-demand/71182-001

August 2020: The Being Human Show (a podcast from The Royal Anthropological Institute)

'Are the Robots Going to Kill Us?'

I was a guest speaker in this episode of the Royal Anthropological Society’s podcast The Being Human Show. We discussed the relationship between the human and the digital through a focus on what being human might look like in a 'post-human' world. Together with host Jennifer Cearns and fellow guest speakers Dr Beth Singler (University of Cambridge) and Dr Laura Musgrave (Ronin Institute), we discussed how smart technologies and artificial intelligence are being incorporated into our lives, and the impacts of this upon us as individuals, and upon society at large.

You can listen to the episode via Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0hvjr5OeROd4Vkh2wPt5hi

March 2019: ABC News

‘Infinite scroll: Will data centres end up eating our cities as we chew through more data?’

In March 2019 I was interviewed by ABC News for this article exploring the growing boom in data centre construction: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-16/will-data-centres-end-up-eating-up-the-planets-real-estate/10870946

May 2018: Failed Architecture

‘Data Space: The Architecture and Impact of Data Centres’

In May 2018, I was interviewed by Failed Architecture for the first episode of their podcast, which explored the built spaces of big data. The podcast was inspired by my article on the data centre industry for Failed Architecture titled, ‘Failover Architectures: The Infrastructural Excess of the Data Centre Industry’: https://failedarchitecture.com/failover-architectures-the-infrastructural-excess-of-the-data-centre-industry/

You can listen to the podcast episode here: https://failedarchitecture.com/podcast/01-data-space-the-architecture-and-impact-of-data-centres-2/

May 2018: The Conversation

‘Google and Facebook won’t rule the world – if we don’t buy their fantasies about big data’

In light of the Cambridge Analytica scandal in March 2018, I wrote an article on the politics and promises of big data for The Conversation. The article is available here: https://theconversation.com/google-and-facebook-wont-rule-the-world-if-we-dont-buy-their-fantasies-about-big-data-95734


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i3Poy3Z9kE

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