Tributary
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Catalogue Number: RTV087
Producer: RESEARCHTV INC.
Producers: Dolan, Paul
Directors: Davoll, James
Subject: Arts, Canadian World Studies, Documentary, Environmental Studies, Global Studies, Science, Tech/Voc
Language: English
Grade Level: 9 - 12, Post Secondary, Adult
Country Of Origin: United Kingdom
Copyright Year: 2023
Running Time: 12:41
A short experimental ethnographic film that traces the movement of natural resources through the Icelandic landscape against the visual and sonic sites of data centers and power plants.
The film explores the covert, 'black-boxed' data centers (remote and highly secure sites, obscured from maps and incredibly difficult to gain access to) against the power stations of the Icelandic landscape. These data centers are the physical locations of intensive computational processing that prop up the digital infrastructure of contemporary life.
Recorded from fieldwork and site visits to Iceland and the UK, this work problematizes the notion of the 'green' data center and explores the intensive energy requirements of bitcoin mining and mass digital image production for cinema and VFX industries.
A collaboration between James Davoll, Paul Dolan and Pete Howson.
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