The Digital Press

At the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, Kate Crawford and Vladan Joler's project "Calculating Empires" won the Silver Lion for its detailed visual exploration of technology and imperial power spanning five centuries. The work uses diagrammatic forms to reveal how architecture, technology, and systems of control have shaped political and social orders from 1500 to today.

Why it matters: The project exposes the deep connections between colonialism, militarization, and technology, urging critical reflection on current technopolitics.

The big picture: By mapping empire as a technological condition, it challenges simplified historical narratives and highlights architecture’s role as a system of control.

Quick takeaway: The evolving, complex diagrams resist reductionism, inviting slow, thoughtful engagement rather than bite-sized consumption of history and power.

Commenters say: Readers appreciate the project's ambitious scope and critical depth, while emphasizing the importance of complexity and the invitation to reconsider histories behind technological progress.