(W)HOLE is an art and research project. It shows the hidden world behind our digital lives. It uses manhole covers in the city as symbols and starting points.

Manhole covers are usually simple objects we walk over every day. But they hide a whole world under our feet. This world contains pipes, cables, and systems that make our lives work. Just like this, digital tools also hide many things we never see. (W)HOLE opens these “hidden worlds” and makes them visible.

(W)HOLE combines many forms of making and imagining, such as: drawing and sculpture, sound and storytelling, augmented reality (AR), 3D models and digital scenes. Each “hole” becomes a door to a new world. These worlds contain invented objects, sounds, stories, and traces of data. Everything is created together by artists, designers, coders, and researchers. The goal is to show that our choices in the digital world also affect the real world.

The project explains digital infrastructures using six simple realms or layers.
Each layer shows one part of the systems that shape our lives:

Each layer has:

· a symbol engraved on a custom manhole cover
· an AR experience that opens a dreamlike world related to that symbol
· A dedicated website shows all manholes on a map.

People can click, explore, and understand the stories behind them.

(W)HOLE also offers:

· guides and toolkits
· articles and readings
· links to groups working on fair, open, and democratic digital systems

People in Zürich and everywhere else are invited to:

· explore the project
· think about what they discover
· act and make changes if they want

(W)HOLE asks simple but important questions:
· How can we understand the huge amount of information around us?
· How can we see what is behind the technology we use?
· Can we invent new symbols to describe how our world works?
· Can we build systems based on cooperation, not extraction?
· How can we connect networks that protect and support the planet?

(W)HOLE is both: a poetic, creative journey and a critical look at how our digital world is built. It shows that infrastructures—like streets, wires, and digital networks—are:

· visible and invisible
· helpful and controlling
· simple and complex

Visitors are invited to pause and think: Which path do we want to take next?

(W)HOLE is inspired by:
· ideas about how digital systems are built
· critiques of who controls these systems
· proposals for fairer, shared infrastructures
· the idea that language and meaning are created together by people

Like our language, our infrastructures shape how we live together. They should therefore be created together, through open discussion.

Today, many people feel overwhelmed by crises and rapid changes. Information travels fast. Powerful groups control many parts of our digital world.

(W)HOLE invites everyone to:
· slow down
· explore
· and search together for new meanings that help us navigate our world with care and cooperation.

Computer systems that can learn from data and perform tasks that normally need human thinking.

Step-by-step rules computers follow to decide what to do or what result to show.

One of the first computer networks, created in the US in the 1960s. It later became the basis of the Internet.

A system where companies compete to capture and keep your attention for profit.

A system whose inner workings you cannot see or understand, even though it affects the result.

A belief mixing free-market ideas and tech optimism, common in early Silicon Valley culture.

Using remote computers to store data or run apps instead of relying on your own device.

Resources shared and cared for by a community, not owned by a single person or company.

A style of science fiction stories about high technology, powerful corporations and life at the edges of society (“high tech, low life”).

Online spaces kept quiet, private and low-visibility to avoid noise, abuse or surveillance.

A US research agency that develops advanced technology, often linked to military projects.

The idea that people or countries should control how their data is stored and used.

A belief that much of today’s online content is fake or automated rather than made by humans.

Shared digital resources – like open software or archives – that anyone can use and help grow.

The gap between people who have access to digital tools and those who do not.

Endlessly reading negative news online, even when it harms your mood.

A brain chemical linked to pleasure and reward. Apps often trigger it to keep you engaged.

The slow worsening of online services as companies put profit above users and quality.

Walking without purpose, noticing small details of a place or system. Can be applied to the digital context (see “surfing”).

China’s system of controls that blocks or limits many foreign websites and services.

A basic rule that tells browsers and websites how to communicate and show pages.

The basic systems we rely on: roads, cables, servers, pipes, and other support networks.

A global network of linked computers that share data and let people communicate.

A large language model: an AI trained on vast amounts of text to generate or understand language.

When AI systems worsen because they are trained mostly on their own earlier outputs.

Groups of connected people, devices or systems that share information.

Online spaces or services where people post, share or interact, such as social media sites.

An idea for a web where information is structured to be understood both by people and machines.

Low-quality online content made quickly, often by AI, without care or originality.

A hopeful style imagining a future with clean energy, fairness and community-based living.

Layers of systems – from hardware to apps – working together to make digital life possible.

Moving quickly from one website to another while browsing online.

A system where companies make money by tracking people and selling behavioural data.

Core rules that allow computers and networks to talk to each other on the Internet.

The belief that technology shapes society more than human choices do.

The stage of the web focused on user content, social media and interactive platforms.

A vision for a web with decentralised control, smarter data links and user ownership.

The system of linked pages, websites and links that we browse using a web browser.