The Medium Is the Environment : Digital materialism, climate crisis and digital art as pedagogy.

This article investigates the environmental impacts of information and communication technologies (ICT) manufacturing, operation, and usage through the theoretical frameworks of new materialism and digital materialism. It challenges the prevalent industry narrative of digital immateriality by emphasizing the tangible material and ecological costs embedded in digital infrastructures, from resource extraction to energy consumption and e-waste. Using an interactive video installation as a case study, the article demonstrates how contemporary digital art can pedagogically foreground the materiality of digital culture, fostering critical awareness of ICT's environmental consequences. The installation visualizes the entanglement of digital media, human bodies, and natural environments, employing data-driven smoke emissions to represent carbon footprints, thereby inviting viewers to reconsider the assumed immateriality of digital information. The article further outlines educational strategies that leverage such artworks to promote alternative ways of knowing and encourage environmentally conscious practices related to digital technology.