The Cultures of the Cryosphere. Infrastructures, Politics and Futures of Artificial Cooling

Project Information

CultCryo

Grant agreement ID: 101118625

DOI

10.3030/101118625

EC signature date 20 August 2024

Start date 1 September 2024

End date 31 August 2030

Funded under

• European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

€ 9 911 396,00

EU contribution

€ 9 911 396,00

Coordinated by

TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAT DARMSTADT
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CultCryo (The Cultures of the Cryosphere. Infrastructures, Politics and Futures of Artificial Cooling)

Reporting period: 2024-09-01 to 2026-02-28

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Artificial cooling fundamentally shapes our lifeworlds. Since the onset of the Cold War, cooling and freezing technologies have become increasingly vital for a wide array of everyday practices, from nutrition, to health and reproduction, dwelling, telecommunication, scientific research, and economic productivity. A global system of cold storages, cold chains, and air-conditioned spaces has become an energy-intensive, yet barely considered, planetary infrastructure. This artificial cryosphere is all around us, yet we have no unified account of its history, extent, or function. We know even less about the social desires, norms, and values – in other words, the cryogenic cultures that drive the globally growing demand, but unevenly distributed use of artificial cold.

In the context of global warming, demand for artificial cooling will escalate significantly as countries around the world grapple with unprecedented temperature increases. Projections indicate a fivefold increase in energy required for global cooling by 2050. Meeting this vast energy demand with existing resources is neither feasible, nor sustainable. Moreover, artificial cooling systems contribute considerably to CO2 emissions, further aggravating global warming and leading to even higher cooling demands. This creates a vicious cycle stoking social conflicts and ecological crises.

CultCryo posits that without a thorough understanding of how the global infrastructure of artificial cold is intricately woven into cultural practices, averting a global cooling crisis will be unattainable. To reimagine our relationship with cold, it is crucial to start with an in-depth examination of the cultural dynamics that drive our unsustainable reliance on artificial cooling. This ERC Synergy Research Project explores the formation of both cold-producing and cold-consuming cultures, examining their spatial and temporal configurations, concepts, norms, and practices. By investigating their historical contexts and geographical varieties, CultCryo also aims to identify potential alternatives that could foster a more sustainable future for artificial cold.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

In order to analyze the constitution of cryogenic cultures, we undertake four interdisciplinary multi-sited case studies in the domains of food supply, air conditioning, biomedicine and computing, using innovative approaches including mixed-methods rooted in the history of technology, geography, digital history of concepts, ethnography and the philosophy and ethics of technology.

1. Using a multi-layered open-access geodatabase, we will map the expansion of the cryosphere - making visible the complex infrastructural cooling networks that encompass our planet. This first planetary atlas of artificial cold will illustrate its hubs, nodes, flows, uneven distribution, and projected growth.
2. Cooling also fundamentally shapes the temporality of life: by deseasonalizing food supplies and extending time horizons for biological reproduction, thereby changing our concepts of freshness, availability, health, and life. We employ cutting-edge big-data text analysis tools, like SCoT and DiaCollo, to trace such cultural shifts and create a first digital history of these concepts.
3. To reveal the cultural drivers for the adoption of cooling technologies we undertake ethnographic case studies in four key regions: East Australia, West India, Central Europe, and the US-American South. Immersive participant observation and qualitative interviews will reveal why cooling practices have accelerated, while extracted focus groups and deliberative mapping exercises will test the reception of potential solutions amongst representative groups.
4. To re-orient our relationship with cold, we must understand the desires and norms that shape its use, along with their consequential objects and practices. A normative analysis that combines digital text mining with social research and philosophical inquiry will reconstruct how these values and their reasons vary through time and place.
5. Finally, to identify alternatives to the current (over)use of artificial cold, we will gather abandoned, overlooked, and innovative modes of cooling and incorporate these into an open-access database: the Cryogenic Cultures Archive.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Artificial cold has fundamentally restructured planetary life on both a biological and cultural level. However, the comprehensive dependence of modern life on a globalized cold infrastructure remains almost unnoticed in everyday life, as well as in research and politics. The far-reaching impacts of the cryogenic nature of our living contexts are still largely unexplored. Political and socio-ecological problems arising from the excessive energy consumption and carbon emissions of this infrastructure induce an urgent reorientation towards a (more) sustainable approach to artificial cold. This reorientation must extend beyond mere technical enhancements to current applications; it necessitates a profound examination of the prevailing sociotechnical and cultural paradigms that guide our thinking and actions. Such a foundation is essential for initiating a comprehensive reevaluation at individual, socioecological and political levels.

Undertaking a comprehensive analysis of the complex cultural dynamics that are driving our uses (and non-uses) of artificial cooling, this pioneering Synergy Grant project will provide:
1. the first geographical mapping of the cryosphere,
2. an historical reconstruction of its emergence,
3. an ethnographic account on its cultural constitution,
4. a philosophical and ethical analysis of its underlying concepts, norms and values,
5. an archive of resources to support collective reconsideration of cooling practices.

But more than that, it will also provide a first systematic conceptualization of a key phenomenon of our time, a new field of knowledge, and answers to an emergent global crisis – the unsustainable use of artificial cold. CultCryo targets the interested public, researchers in the humanities and social sciences, as well as political actors. The Cryogenic Cultures Archive will provide policy makers, planners, and the general public with opportunities to assess alternative technologies and practices to develop sustainable solutions for future planetary cooling.