Cold Storage explores the environmental and economic tensions that exist within cloud infrastructure; the hardware and software resources that are required to support a cloud computing model. Although presented as a weightless facade, the cloud has numerous forces and risks constantly being mitigated for the purposes of efficiency and security of data and systems. Cold Storage navigates these ideas through a narrative based around the National Library of New Zealand’s move of the National Digital Heritage Archive from its own server room to a private infrastructure provider in Trentham, Upper Hutt. Both spaces, by design, are hidden from sight but need large amounts of energy and resources to operate. Employing the raw electronic music genre of 'Weightless' and creating an immersive installation environment, Wagg brings to light complex structures which play a now vital role in the preservation and security of operational systems.
—Text adapted from exhibition label for This Time of Useful Consciousness: Political Ecology Now at The Dowse, Lower Hutt, 2017.
