Research › Sites & Objects

Sites (Sites)

Illustration: linked and connected research around the globe from Houston, New Orleans, Virginia to Aarhus & Frankfurt to Mumbai to Sydney & Melbourne. ()

We will focus on the regions East Australia, West India, Central Europe, and the US-American South.

Each of the four main research regions includes multiple nodes in the planetary cryosphere. Mumbai is home to major data centres, cryobanks, uneven distribution of air conditioning, and a rapidly increasing destination for beef imports. Bull semen from Denmark enters climate controlled transport, impregnating cows in the US-American South, used for beef that is exported globally in climate controlled cold chains protected by digital blockchain security technology.

Research Objects (Objects)

Food Supply Beef Beef has been a paradigmatic cryogenic object since at least the late 19th century cold storages and meatpacking industry of Chicago. Today, beef is global, relying on resource-intensive cold chains that make this once rare commodity into a regular part of diets in almost every country in the world.

Space Cooling Air-conditioning units Air-conditioning is an unevenly distributed resource of comfort. Whether in an overload of air-conditioning units exasperating heat island effects in cities, or the transformation of normative ideas around freshness or productivity, our planet is increasingly engineered around thermal comfort.

Biomedicine Cryobanks Cryobanks store bioresources at temperatures that are cool and constant. From human oocytes to bull semen, from vaccines to viruses, a complex logistical infrastructure of cold underpins our food supply, medical services and biotechnical research.

Computing Data Centers Data and a transition to digitalization is often imagined to be an ecological triumph, but it relies upon data centers. Every bit of immaterial data computed produces heat: cooling is up to 40% of the electricity costs. The digital is cryogenic.

Illustration: © Matthias Seifert

Food Supply Beef

Beef has been a paradigmatic cryogenic object since at least the late 19th century cold storages and meatpacking industry of Chicago. Today, beef is global, relying on resource-intensive cold chains that make this once rare commodity into a regular part of diets in almost every country in the world.

learn more

Space Cooling Air-conditioning units

Air-conditioning is an unevenly distributed resource of comfort. Whether in an overload of air-conditioning units exasperating heat island effects in cities, or the transformation of normative ideas around freshness or productivity, our planet is increasingly engineered around thermal comfort.

learn more

Biomedicine Cryobanks

Cryobanks store bioresources at temperatures that are cool and constant. From human oocytes to bull semen, from vaccines to viruses, a complex logistical infrastructure of cold underpins our food supply, medical services and biotechnical research.

learn more

Computing Data Centers

Data and a transition to digitalization is often imagined to be an ecological triumph, but it relies upon data centers. Every bit of immaterial data computed produces heat: cooling is up to 40% of the electricity costs. The digital is cryogenic.

learn more