Data Centers (Paperback)

Monika Dommann

ISBN 10: 3037786450 / ISBN 13: 9783037786451

Published by Lars Muller Publishers, Baden, 2020

About this Item

Paperback. An investigation into the complex politics of data centres, through photographs and essays. Often hidden in plain sight, data centers are the backbone of our internet. They store, communicate and transport the information we produce and access daily along invisible pathways. The industry of data centres comes entwined with an iconography of generic, bland and sterile architectures: placeless, inconspicuous, anonymous structures - buildings, cable ducts, junction boxes and landing sites that could be anywhere, generating virtual infrastructures that are both everywhere and nowhere. Bringing together photography, essays and case studies, Data Centers explores the entanglements of place, past and digital infrastructure, taking Switzerland as its example. Beyond the official story - Switzerland's favourable alpine climate, relatively low energy costs, the political stability of the area and its strategic positioning in Central Europe - Data Centers uncovers the narratives of techno-nationalist aspirations; of Swiss Chinese interdependence; of deregulation and once-almighty telecommunications enterprises; of cold-war legacies and the multi-billion dollar business of data security. AUTHORS: Monika Dommann is Professor of Modern History at the University of Zurich. Topics in her research and teaching are the intertwining of the Old and New Worlds, media-, economic- and legal history, the history of knowledge and science as well as the methods of historical science. She has a special focus on the history of material cultures, immaterial goods, logistics and data centres. Hannes Rickli is a visual artist and has held a professorship at the Zurich University of the Arts since 2004. From 1988 to 1994, he worked as a freelance photographer for various newspapers and magazines and has staged visual art exhibitions in Switzerland and abroad since 1991. In 2004, he was awarded the Meret Oppenheim Prize from the Swiss Federal Office for Culture. His teaching and research focus on the instrumental use of media and space. Max Stadler is a post-doctoral researcher at ETH Zurich (Science Studies and Collegium Helveticum). He has received a Ph.D. in the history of science, technology and medicine from CHoSTM, Imperial College, London. His research interests center on the history of "high-tech," labour, and the human sciences. 160 images Who manages our data? A look behind the scenes of state-of-the-art IT infrastructures.Data centers are high-tech functional buildings, strictly protected treasuries and covert centers of power.The first comprehensive analysis of the history and present of IT infrastructures using the example of Switzerland. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9783037786451

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Data Centers (Paperback)
• Publisher: Lars Muller Publishers, Baden
• Publication Date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3037786450
• ISBN 13: 9783037786451
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

An investigation into the complex politics of data centers, through photographs and essays

Often hidden in plain sight, data centers are the backbone of our internet. They store, communicate and transport the information we produce and access daily along invisible pathways. The industry of data centers comes entwined with an iconography of generic, bland and sterile architectures: placeless, inconspicuous, anonymous structures―buildings, cable ducts, junction boxes and landing sites that could be anywhere, generating virtual infrastructures that are both everywhere and nowhere.

Bringing together photography, essays and case studies, Data Centers explores the entanglements of place, past and digital infrastructure, taking Switzerland as its example. Beyond the official story―Switzerland’s favorable alpine climate, relatively low energy costs, the political stability of the area and its strategic positioning in Central Europe―Data Centers uncovers the narratives of techno-nationalist aspirations; of Swiss Chinese interdependence; of deregulation and once-almighty telecommunications enterprises; of cold-war legacies and the multi-billion dollar business of data security.