Calculating Empires: A Genealogy of Technology and Power Since 1500

Calculating Empires is a large-scale visual manifesto illustrating how technical and social structures co-evolved over five centuries. It traces technological patterns of colonialism, militarisation, automation, and enclosure since 1500 to show how these forces still subjugate and how they might be unwound. Spanning twenty-four meters in length, it traces the story of calculation from al-Khwarizmi to deep neural nets and presents a richer historical tapestry to better understand the technological present.