The Intangible Archives of SIIDA

The Nordic Arctic are currently undergoing a digital industrial revolution where the cold climate and cheap energy prices are perfect for data centre locations. These large energy consuming machines are an added element towards the threat of Sami indigenous communities whose culture is beginning to diminish. Lack of information and digital infrastructure in the Arctic has consequently let towards ‘Norweigification’ of Arctic communities, forcing young demographics to migrate into urban cities in search of employment opportunities which results in loss of traditional practices and languages.

The project addresses the politics behind utilising servers in a data centre as a sovereign status for the Sami Arctic community. The coexistence between digital infrastructure and Arctic communities is a critique against the lack of digital opportunities in the Arctic, which excludes the rights of self-determination and input towards the Arctics digital future landscape. The Sami culture is primarily an intangible one; a culture which cannot be seen but rather experienced through their handicrafts, practices, navigation and most importantly their life cycle calendar which relies heavily on the Arctic 8 seasons named SIIDA. The project proposes a data centre which merges traditional practice and digital infrastructure using server heat and Arctic conditions to mimic 8 different temperatures to archive intangible practices which are then stored as data.

The data centre reaction through heat creates the 8 seasonal stages of the Arctic through the formation of clouds, ice, water, steam and fog enriching the recording experience. As a Sami records their intangible practice the data centre simulates the exact temperatures in which the rituals are performed in, thus making the data more accurate. Server heat is used to create controlled experiential environments and human comfort environments. In return the Arctic conditions cool the servers which are kept between 10°C to 50°C in order to run at optimum temperatures. All the machines and infrastructure are visible and moving alluding to the data centre becoming a ‘breathing organism’ run through the digital lifecycle of the Sami’s.