Digital Energetics

This book explores the connections between energy and media, arguing that they require joint theorization to understand their potential to universalize and the many contingent and intermeshed relations they bind together. It focuses on digital operations, tracing how data and energy have jointly modulated the materiality and labor of digital systems in a warming world.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 152 pages
Publication date: 23 May 2023
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press

Energy and media are intertwined, shaping social life and each other. This volume explores the connections between energy and media, examining their cultural, environmental, and economic relations. Digital Energetics argues for joint theorization of media and energy, recognizing their potential for universalization and the contingent and intermeshed relations they bind together. The coauthors analyze how data and energy have shaped the materiality and labor of digital systems in a warming world, focusing on digital operations. Anne Pasek traces the energy history of the bit, highlighting its electrification and digitization in American computing. Zane Griffin Talley Cooper explores cryptographic proof-of-work systems' heat concerns and their management. Cindy Kaiying Lin examines the practical and political frictions created as database and management designs move from the Global North to South, illustrating how energy constraints and software cultures in Indonesia open new spaces for autonomy in environmental governance. Finally, Jordan B. Kinder offers a theorization of "platform energetics," demonstrating how platforms shape energy dynamics and user experiences.

Energy and media are intertwined, shaping social life and each other. This volume explores the connections between energy and media, examining their cultural, environmental, and economic relations. Digital Energetics argues for joint theorization of media and energy, recognizing their potential for universalization and the contingent and intermeshed relations they bind together. The coauthors analyze how data and energy have shaped the materiality and labor of digital systems in a warming world, focusing on digital operations. Anne Pasek traces the energy history of the bit, highlighting its electrification and digitization in American computing. Zane Griffin Talley Cooper explores cryptographic proof-of-work systems' heat concerns and their management. Cindy Kaiying Lin examines the practical and political frictions created as database and management designs move from the Global North to South, illustrating how energy constraints and software cultures in Indonesia open new spaces for autonomy in environmental governance. Finally, Jordan B. Kinder offers a theorization of "platform energetics," demonstrating how platforms shape energy dynamics and user experiences.

Weight: 132g
Dimension: 125 x 179 x 10 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781517915872