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- Title
Von der Goldmine zum Gletscher: All Weather Snow als multiples Frontier-Phänomen.
- Authors
NÖBAUER, HERTA
- Abstract
This article examines the human relationship with snow and technology in extreme environments. It focuses on an analysis of artifi cially produced snow as a frontier phenomenon and as a medium for interpreting the atmosphere from the perspective of social and cultural anthropology and the history of technology. The man-made snow under consideration, called all-weather snow, is fabricated in this particular case by the vacuum-ice method. The emergence, spread and application of this freezing-separation technique in highly diverse and challenging environments follow horizontal, vertical and transnational paths. They lead to the Arctic Ocean in Siberia and the Mediterranean Sea in Israel—two regions where sea water has been transformed into drinking water by this method in the past. They guide us further to South Africa where it has been employed to cool a gold mine since some decades. We fi nally arrive at Europe’s glaciers, where a particular machine called the all-weather snowmaker is currently in use to produce snow for skiers in tourism. I propose to explore the vacuum-ice principle along different lines of connections: First, I assign this specifi c method among the “cryogenic technologies”: Frost and freezing are the basis of the manufacture and consumption of snow as an economic and cultural resource. At the same time, I argue that we should consider this technological process within a global context of politics and ecology. Along a third line, I discuss artifi cial snow as a practice within a long series of human attempts to control, outsmart and master the weather. All-weather snow even makes the claim of being independent of weather conditions. This in turn raises the issue of the atmosphere as a social construct. I will show how specifi c notions of assertive technology and ecological policymaking are attached to such a claim of autonomy from the elements: On the one hand, the idea of “technological fi xes” confi rms the conception of the atmosphere as a technological and exploitable object. On the other hand, it promotes the image of the atmosphere as an “endless frontier” allowing human lifestyle and consumption unlimited expansion, with snow being a seemingly inexhaustible “frontier resource.”
- Subjects
INTERPERSONAL relations; ETHNOLOGY; HISTORY of technology; DRINKING water; TOURISM; POLITICAL ecology
- Publication
Technikgeschichte, 2018, Vol 85, Issue 1, p3
- ISSN
0040-117X
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.5771/0040-117x-2018-1-3