Cudney, Z. 'Cold media, arctic environments, and archival imaginaries.' (Paper presented, Media/Environments: Imbrications and Reverberations, Society for the Social Study of Science, Seattle, 2025).

The data center industry, chided for its energy intensity, has turned towards ‘green computing.’ By locating data centers in places with cool climates or abundant renewable energy, corporations can cut down on their carbon footprint. One such ‘green’ data center is the Arctic World Archive (AWA), a long-term data storage facility in Svalbard. Located in a decommissioned coal mine, the AWA is naturally cooled by the surrounding permafrost. Data here are metaphorically ‘cold’ as well because they are offline and removed from the ‘hot’ flux of the Internet. The AWA stores digitized world memory on analog reels of silver halide film. In this unique way, everything from national constitutions to famous artworks to software source code are defended against risks associated with media infrastructures and changing environments. While addressing these risks, the AWA also symbolically benefits from associations of ice and cold with preservation and civilization. Nicole Starosielski notes that the ‘coldward course’ of media reflects the cooling needs of data but also stereotypes of cold climates as stewards of civilization. With this in mind, I analyze how ice and cold lend legitimacy to the AWA’s mission to archive world memory. The AWA also implicitly articulates with anxieties around disappearing landscapes or global catastrophe due to climate change. I argue therefore that the AWA exemplifies a distinct type of Anthropocenic archival imaginary that (1) blurs the boundaries between nature and culture, (2) is planetary in scope, and (3) attempts to (re)place or (re)mediate landscapes rather than just represent them.