This is the third podcast dealing with the data center industrial complex.  The series is hosted by Mél Hogan and Sean Willett. This episode features Matt Parker (@earthkeptwarm), a Mozilla's Internet Health Report spokesperson, Stefan Baack, Canada Research Chair in Media, Culture and the Environment, Anne Pasek (@aepasek), associate professor of media and communication studies, and associate lecturer in Technology and Social Change at the Department for Thematic Studies, Linköping University in Sweden, Julia Velkova (@jvelkova) and bitcoin expert Zane Griffin Talley Cooper (@ZaneGTCooper). This episode focuses on the environmental impacts of data centers; land, water and energy.

DCIC Ep.3 - Land, Water, Energy

We take a look at the critical ecologies of the cloud with Mél Hogan – Director of the Environmental Media Lab at the University of Calgary – who researches the environmental politics of server farms and data centers. We unpack the ongoing domination of nature by machine and market logics — until there isn’t anything left to dominate.

••• Mel’s twitter: https://twitter.com/mel_hogan
••• Mél’s work: https://www.melhogan.com/ 
••• Project on art and the cloud https://www.criticalstudiesofthe.cloud/ 
••• Critical Data Center Studies bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bnbDNTXlpddbfuShMgRKWvWLFIKUKBchUkluMMOVRkw/edit#heading=h.2bmuylggugur

Stuff we reference:
••• Big data ecologies: Landscapes of political action http://www.ephemerajournal.org/contribution/big-data-ecologies
••• The Nature of Data Centers | special issue of Culture Machine https://culturemachine.net/vol-18-the-nature-of-data-centers/
••• Power, Pollution and the Internet https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/23/technology/data-centers-waste-vast-amounts-of-energy-belying-industry-image.html?pagewanted=all 

Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills   

Grab TMK gear: https://www.bonfire.com/store/this-machine-kills-podcast/ 

Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.twitter.com/braunestahl)

218. Ecosystems-as-a-Service (ft. Mél Hogan)

We take a look back at the year's events and the major social and political developments that worked to normalize covid in 2022.

Find the companion episode to this one, “How Liberals Killed Masking,” here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/how-liberals-12-76127094

This episode was originally a patron exclusive. If you enjoy this episode, consider becoming a patron at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod.

After this episode first aired, we adapted it into a piece for The New Inquiry called “The Year the Pandemic ‘Ended.’” Find Part One (of three) here: https://thenewinquiry.com/the-year-the-pandemic-ended-part-1/

Health Communism is finally back in stock and currently 40% for Verso's holiday sale. Get it here: www.versobooks.com/books/4081-health-communism

Death Panel merch here (patrons get a discount code): www.deathpanel.net/merch

As always, support Death Panel at www.patreon.com/deathpanelpod

join our Discord here: discord.com/invite/3KjKbB2

Death Panel

Death Panel Covid Year Three (Unlocked)

Become a patron

Covid Year Three (Unlocked)

This is the first in a multi-part series exploring data centers from a social science and humanities perspective. Co-hosts Mél Hogan and Sean Willett interview scholars, artists, engineers and practitioners in various locations to discuss what is a data center. The first episode focuses on people, imagination and concrete -- that is, the materiality of the infrastructure and all that it enables.

Hosted by Environmental Media Lab (environmentalmedialab.com)
Supported by the University of Calgary Faculty of Arts and SSHRC.

Interviews with Alex Taylor, Alix Johnson, Anne Pasek, Matt Parker, Asta Vonderau, Tor Bjorn Minde, Tung Hui Hu, Julia Velkova, and more. Music by Matt Parker and Corina MacDonald. Editing by Sean Willett. Project lead by Mél Hogan.

DCIC Ep.1 - People, Imagination and Concrete

This second episode looks at traces of data center infrastructure and the material politics of data center in/visibility. We also discuss company data tracking, corporate data collection, and the era of 'big data analysis' for profit. Featuring interviews with Alex Taylor, Tor Bjorn Minde, Asta Vonderau, Matt Parker, Anne Pasek, and Alix Johnson. Music by Corina MacDonald and Matt Parker. Episode image by Sébastien Hogan. Editing by Sean Willett. Project lead by Mél Hogan.

**Watch Matt Parker's The People's Cloud 6 part documentary: https://www.earthkeptwarm.com/the-peoples-cloud/

DCIC Ep.3 - Land, Water, Energy

Environmental Media Lab

Related tracks