How has artificial cooling shaped the world we live in? The ERC-funded research project “Cultures of the Cryosphere” sets out to explore the profound impact of these technologies on modern societies.
On January 7, 2025, Prof. Bronwyn Parry from the Australian National University introduced the research endeavors to the public at KWI’s Garden Room and via Zoom. In her insightful and engaging lecture „Cultures of the Cryosphere. Charting Emergent Geographies and Historiographies of our Relations with Cold„, she explored the intricate geographies and histories of our relationship with cold. She vividly illustrated how cooling technologies have shaped our lives, from artificial insemination to the invention of the microwave oven, and even such popular thought experiments like „the brain in the vat“. The lecture was followed by a lively discussion with the audience, where the implications of these ideas were debated, including the growing demand for cooling in AI and data centers. The ability to artificially cool environments and living entities has driven a powerful set of human imaginaries, all informed by tropes of control: new found abilities to stop and start life at will, to secure and store foods that would otherwise be geographically unavailable, to occupy spaces normally unsympathetic to human life, and to generate forms of knowledge that can now be successfully archived in artificial brains that sit outside conventional bodily housings. The lecture took place as part of the project’s first internal workshop at KWI from 6 January to 8 January 2025.
The entire presentation is available here on KWI’s Youtube channel.
