Technologies of Imagination: Locating the Cloud in Sweden’s North
Abstract | When in 2011 a world-leading IT company expressed the intention to locate its infrastructure in the Swedish city of Luleå, this announcement immediately triggered future scenarios and visions of a new industrial era, economic prosperity, and changing urban life. Such anticipation was supp...
Published in: | Imaginations Journal of Cross-Cultural Image Studies/revue d études interculturelle de l image |
---|---|
Main Author: | |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English French |
Published: |
University of Alberta
2018
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.17742/IMAGE.LD.8.2.2 https://doaj.org/article/952aef6760204921a6d392fd277acea3 |
id |
ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:952aef6760204921a6d392fd277acea3 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:952aef6760204921a6d392fd277acea3 2023-05-15T17:09:01+02:00 Technologies of Imagination: Locating the Cloud in Sweden’s North Asta Vonderau 2018-09-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.17742/IMAGE.LD.8.2.2 https://doaj.org/article/952aef6760204921a6d392fd277acea3 EN FR eng fre University of Alberta https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/imaginations/index.php/imaginations/article/view/29375 https://doaj.org/toc/1918-8439 1918-8439 doi:10.17742/IMAGE.LD.8.2.2 https://doaj.org/article/952aef6760204921a6d392fd277acea3 Imaginations: Journal of Cross-Cultural Media Studies, Vol 8, Iss 2, Pp 8-21 (2018) Fine Arts N Social Sciences H article 2018 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.17742/IMAGE.LD.8.2.2 2023-01-08T01:38:06Z Abstract | When in 2011 a world-leading IT company expressed the intention to locate its infrastructure in the Swedish city of Luleå, this announcement immediately triggered future scenarios and visions of a new industrial era, economic prosperity, and changing urban life. Such anticipation was supported and shaped by municipal planning and business-management activities that soon materialized in the form of building sites, regional development strategies, and new markets. Since the actual name and operations of the IT company were kept entirely secret, the planning and implementation of “Project Gold”—as the data centre project was called locally—was as much driven by collective imaginaries as by hard facts or past experiences. This article is based on an ethnographic study that followed the implementation of Facebook’s first European data centre in Luleå. The paper analyzes different modes of data centre infrastructural (in)visibility and shows how imaginaries became influential both for implementing the cloud in Luleå and for shaping the anticipated time and space of “post-extractive modernity.” More specifically, the paper focuses on socio-technical preconditions as well as concrete practices and styles—technologies of imagination—enabling those imaginaries. Article in Journal/Newspaper Luleå Luleå Luleå Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Imaginations Journal of Cross-Cultural Image Studies/revue d études interculturelle de l image 8 2 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English French |
topic |
Fine Arts N Social Sciences H |
spellingShingle |
Fine Arts N Social Sciences H Asta Vonderau Technologies of Imagination: Locating the Cloud in Sweden’s North |
topic_facet |
Fine Arts N Social Sciences H |
description |
Abstract | When in 2011 a world-leading IT company expressed the intention to locate its infrastructure in the Swedish city of Luleå, this announcement immediately triggered future scenarios and visions of a new industrial era, economic prosperity, and changing urban life. Such anticipation was supported and shaped by municipal planning and business-management activities that soon materialized in the form of building sites, regional development strategies, and new markets. Since the actual name and operations of the IT company were kept entirely secret, the planning and implementation of “Project Gold”—as the data centre project was called locally—was as much driven by collective imaginaries as by hard facts or past experiences. This article is based on an ethnographic study that followed the implementation of Facebook’s first European data centre in Luleå. The paper analyzes different modes of data centre infrastructural (in)visibility and shows how imaginaries became influential both for implementing the cloud in Luleå and for shaping the anticipated time and space of “post-extractive modernity.” More specifically, the paper focuses on socio-technical preconditions as well as concrete practices and styles—technologies of imagination—enabling those imaginaries. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Asta Vonderau |
author_facet |
Asta Vonderau |
author_sort |
Asta Vonderau |
title |
Technologies of Imagination: Locating the Cloud in Sweden’s North |
title_short |
Technologies of Imagination: Locating the Cloud in Sweden’s North |
title_full |
Technologies of Imagination: Locating the Cloud in Sweden’s North |
title_fullStr |
Technologies of Imagination: Locating the Cloud in Sweden’s North |
title_full_unstemmed |
Technologies of Imagination: Locating the Cloud in Sweden’s North |
title_sort |
technologies of imagination: locating the cloud in sweden’s north |
publisher |
University of Alberta |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.17742/IMAGE.LD.8.2.2 https://doaj.org/article/952aef6760204921a6d392fd277acea3 |
genre |
Luleå Luleå Luleå |
genre_facet |
Luleå Luleå Luleå |
op_source |
Imaginations: Journal of Cross-Cultural Media Studies, Vol 8, Iss 2, Pp 8-21 (2018) |
op_relation |
https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/imaginations/index.php/imaginations/article/view/29375 https://doaj.org/toc/1918-8439 1918-8439 doi:10.17742/IMAGE.LD.8.2.2 https://doaj.org/article/952aef6760204921a6d392fd277acea3 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.17742/IMAGE.LD.8.2.2 |
container_title |
Imaginations Journal of Cross-Cultural Image Studies/revue d études interculturelle de l image |
container_volume |
8 |
container_issue |
2 |
_version_ |
1766064977686298624 |