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Tributary

James Davoll* (Other), Paul Dolan (Other), Peter Howson (Other)

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Non-textual formDigital or Visual Products

    Abstract

    Tributary is an experimental ethnographic film that traces the movement and harnessing of natural resources within the Icelandic landscape to support our digital lives.

    Tributary explores covert, 'black-boxed' data centres (remote and highly secure sites) by tracking water and geothermal sources to the infrastructure required to power and house these physical locations of intensive computational processing.

    Created from a combination of traditional and experimental field recording techniques made within Iceland and the UK, Tributary aims to problematise the notion of 'green' data centres. It showcases the intensive energy requirements required to prop up the digital infrastructure of contemporary life. These include cryptocurrency mining, cloud storage, digital image production and media streaming.
    Original languageEnglish
    Place of PublicationJournal of Anthropological Films
    PublisherNordic Anthropological Film Association (NAFA)
    EditionVol. 7 No. 01 (2023)
    Media of outputFilm
    Size12 mins 40 secs
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 8 May 2023

    Keywords

    • data
    • energy
    • digital culture
    • human infrastructures

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