Talk
What Goes into a Doomsday Vault? An Anthropology of/for Strange Times
Thursday, September 21, 2023, 5:00PM EST
19 Washington Square North
Past Event
Open to the Public
The Arctic World Archive rests in an abandoned coal mine deep below the permafrost, designed to store human memory for thousands of years. It was inspired by the so-called "Doomsday Seed Vault" just down the road. Deposits include digital copies of the Vatican's secret archive, Disney films, and a large sample of open-source software code -- just in case we need a “civilizational reboot,” in the words of one CEO. Based on fieldwork conducted in Svalbard in 2019 and 2022, this talk grapples with the politics and imaginaries at work in doomsday vaults and other deep time objects.
Image credit: Shannon Dawdy
The Arctic World Archive rests in an abandoned coal mine deep below the permafrost, designed to store human memory for thousands of years. It was inspired by the so-called "Doomsday Seed Vault" just down the road. Deposits include digital copies of the Vatican's secret archive, Disney films, and a large sample of open-source software code -- just in case we need a “civilizational reboot,” in the words of one CEO. Based on fieldwork conducted in Svalbard in 2019 and 2022, this talk grapples with the politics and imaginaries at work in doomsday vaults and other deep time objects.
Image credit: Shannon Dawdy
- Shannon Dawdy, Professor of Anthropology, University of Chicago
In collaboration with
