TL:DR
- Fashion designer Maximilian Raynor created a 25-kilogram dress from 3,600 meters of fiber-optic cables to personify the internet’s hidden physical infrastructure.
- The artistic project required 640 hours of craftsmanship, demonstrating how unconventional materials from data centers can create compelling visual narratives.
- The dress showcases the material reality behind digital connectivity, highlighting data centers as the physical foundation enabling global internet access.
For the majority of people, the internet is fully integrated into our daily lives. In the 30+ years since it became publicly available, it has revolutionized communication, healthcare, education, business operations, entertainment and so much more.
Today, the internet is so deeply embedded in our lives and work that it feels intangible. But there’s a hidden physical world behind all our digital experiences—a world of fiber-optic cables, routers, switches, firewalls, satellites, subsea cables, and, of course, the data centers where much of the world’s technology infrastructure lives. These material elements, along with the teams of engineers who keep them operating, make it possible for data to zip from one place to another in the blink of an eye.
The internet is fundamental to the cutting-edge technologies that underpin our daily lives, including cloud computing, the internet of things (IoT) and AI. It empowers human connection and drives the world’s economies. As we see AI being embedded into more aspects of our lives and work every day, we’re truly living in an intelligent age of sweeping technological advancement—all made possible by the internet. And the backbone of all this innovation is the technology infrastructure that connects everything: a web of cables, underground tunnels and undersea highways for information to travel.
To help bring the unseen forces of this intelligent age to life, Equinix partnered with fashion designer Maximilian Raynor to make a one-of-a-kind creation that enlivens the story of the internet, a dress made of data center materials:
Figure 1: A stunning garment crafted from data center cables
The dress represents the personification of the internet, a complex network of physical material that has facilitated some of the greatest human achievements of our time.
A rare, one-of-a-kind garment
Figure 2: A dress made of 3,600 meters of fiber-optic cables
Maximilian Raynor and his team crafted the art piece from fiber-optic cables, metal washers and bolts.
Figure 3: Rear view of the dress
Weighing in at 25 kilograms (roughly 55 pounds), the garment features enough networking cable to run the length of 72 Olympic swimming pools. These network cables—along with the data centers that house them—form the backbone of all global connectivity.
Figure 4: Data center connectivity cables were used to craft the piece
While physical cables aren’t what most people imagine when they think of the internet, they’re nevertheless a core part of the critical infrastructure that enables digital connectivity.
Figure 5: Cabling inside a data center
Meet the designer: Maximilian Raynor
Figure 6: The garment with designer Maximilian Raynor
With an aesthetic that features experimental textiles and unconventional materials, Maximilian Raynor was the perfect designer for the garment. The designer and his team spent 640 hours working on the project.
As a designer, you don’t need access to the finest materials to create something beautiful. Often, the most unconventional materials, paired with a make-do-and-mend approach to design, can achieve really exciting outcomes.”—Maximilian Raynor
Hear about how Equinix data centers inspired the designer here:
The project’s really been an educational one, especially today coming to the data center and really seeing the kind-of tangible nature of the internet.…We all think of the cloud as this thing that exists in the sky that’s not real, and you come here [to Equinix] and you realize that there’s a material quality to all of our phones and everything we do on computers.”—Maximilian Raynor
The crucial role of data centers in the digital age
Data centers around the world house essential IT infrastructure, including networking equipment like the fiber-optic cables used in Maximilian Raynor’s dress design. Data centers are also the place where enterprises, business partners, clouds, network service providers, and other organizations connect, interact, and exchange data and services.
Figure 7: Data center floor with yellow network cable tray
Figure 8: The dress inside an Equinix data center where employees are working
Physical technology infrastructure isn’t the only hidden force behind our digital lives. It’s also the talented workforce of engineers, network architects, system administrators, technicians and other skilled professionals who keep technology functioning. To learn more about the people enabling our digital world, read The Intelligent Age: Bridging the Visible and Invisible in a Tech-Driven World, where we explore three key digital corridors that showcase the talented workers powering the age of intelligence.
There’s no digital world without the material one
Without data centers, without physical infrastructure, and without the people who make it work, we wouldn’t have the internet, AI or any of the cutting-edge technologies that have transformed our world. The material aspects of our technology landscape enable the immaterial ones—the seemingly magical web of information at our fingertips.
With more than 260 data centers around the world, Equinix plays a pivotal role in housing the technology infrastructure that fuels our connectivity.
Learn more about Equinix: Who we are.
Figure 9: A dress representing the personification of the internet
Photos credit: Bircan Tulga
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