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Story Telling with Code - Archaeology of Climate Modelling,
in: TeamEthno-online, Issue 2, University of Lancaster, June 2006: 77-84
von Gabriele Gramelsberger



(Textauszug)
As a science philosopher one usually theoretises about scientific methods of knowledge production and world making and as a science researcher one usually analyses the social interactions between researchers and their ways of knowledge production. But after years of studying the influence of computer based simulation on scientific knowledge production the object of desire became an irresistible force of attraction. One wants to see "the model" with ones own eyes, wants to risk a view into the deep space of code.

When I first came in touch with climate models there were three things which unexpectedly intrigued me immediately. The first surprise was that these models - which predict global climate changes, man's imminent decline or, at least, his uncomfortable future - fit conveniently into my pocket: A complete ocean with fishes, the atmosphere with clouds and the ability for turbulent behaviour, countrysides with vegetation, lakes and land ice, the anthroposphere and a lot more existed in my handbag when I left the institute for meteorology. Of course this world was a completely semiotical one enclosed in the memory of my USB stick, like the world in a nutshell. But, provided that I had a supercomputer and the necessary batch files, I had developed scenarios of global disasters and hopes.

The second surprise was that these models seemed to be living organisms, proliferating for decades and outliving more than two generations of climate researchers. Starting with Jule Charneys simple model written for ENIAC in 1950 these models have evolved today into complex and powerful earth systems around the core of Bjerknes equations from 1904. They fit on my USB stick but they need the vastest machines ever built if one wants them to perform.

The third surprise was that these models running on the vastest machines like the Japanese earth simulator unveil a perforated world with wholes as big as Luxemburg and time gaps of hours and days. Imagine living in such a discrete world, it must be a strange feeling not only experiencing a discrete existence, but also an average valued one. ...

- Online-Version des Artikels unter: »Story Telling with Code (TeamEthno-online 2, June 2006)


Vorträge und Publikationen zum Thema:

- Gramelsberger, G.: "Story Telling with Code", in: Andrea Gleininger, Georg Vrachliotis (Hg.): Code. Between Operation and Narration. Context Architecture, Basel: Birkhaeuser (in print 2010)
- Praktiken des Programmierens, Workshop 01.12.2006 »Praktiken des Programmierens
- "Story Telling with Code - Archaeology of Climate Modelling", Vortrag zum Workshop "Ethnography of Coding", University of Lancaster, 29./30.3.2006
- "Datenarchäologie in aktuellen Klimamodellen", Vortrag zur GWTF Jahrestagung "E-Science", BBAW Berlin, 25.-26.11.2005


© Gabriele Gramelsberger, Berlin 2010