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

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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)