Artificial cooling is fundamentally shaping our world. Since the beginning of the Cold War, cooling and freezing technologies have become increasingly important for a wide range of everyday practices, from nutrition, health and reproduction to housing, telecommunications, scientific research and economic productivity.
A global system of cold stores, cold chains and climate-controlled rooms has become an energy-intensive but little-noticed planetary infrastructure. Although (or precisely because?) this artificial cryosphere surrounds us everywhere, we have no systematic, well-founded understanding of its history, its extent or its function. We know even less about cryogenic cultures, i.e. the interplay of cultural-social factors such as practices, structures, desires, norms and values that drive the growing global demand, but also the unequal distribution of the use of artificial cold. The research project Cultures of the Cryosphere (CultCryo), which is funded by an ERC Synergy Grant, is dedicated to filling this knowledge gap.
The project (2024-2030) of our workgroup "Philosophy and Ethics of Scientific and Technological Cultures" reconstructs the historical development of the artificial cryosphere in four paradigmatic fields: Air Conditioning, Food, Biomedicine, and Computing. In order to analyse the cultural conditionality of this growing dependence on artificial cooling, the research group compares the local conditions of different regions of the world (Eastern Australia, Western India, Central Europe and the USA). CultCryo will showcase how different cultures produce and consume cooling, and what potential alternatives exist that could provide us with a more sustainable future.
Further information and updates on upcoming events can be found on the homepage.
