STREAMING CARBON FOOTPRINT

Streaming media is calculated to contribute a surprising 1% of global greenhouse gases, because most regions of the world obtain electricity from fossil fuels to power their data centers, networks, and devices. Streaming large files in large quantities, then, ethically implicates spectators in the warming of the planet. Bad news — but we have some solutions!

Here’s the full report, evidence brief, and best-practices recommendations from Tackling the Carbon Footprint of Streaming Media, a year-long collaboration between ICT engineers Stephen Makonin and SFMF’s Laura U. Marks and Radek Przedpełski, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada: “Streaming Carbon Footprint”.

Read More on the SFU Website

RESEARCH AND RESOURCES

Ready to delve deeper into why Small Files are so important? This list of resources is a great start into exploring the entangled relationship between streaming media and the environment.

Streaming and the Environment

Small File Futures

ICT Engineering Articles

AI, Blockchain, and Crypto-art

Small-File Aesthetics

Publications

Panels, Roundtables, Symposia, and Talks

  • Azadeh Emadi, Joseph Malbon, Laura U. Marks, and Radek Przedpełski, "Bending the possible (one pixel at a time): Small-file ecomedia for the Anthropocene" https://isea2022.isea-international.org/event/online-presentations/
  • Laura U. Marks and Radek Przedpełski, "Small-File as Ahuman Life. Sustainable Experimental Ecomedia for the Anthropocene"
  • Yani Kong, "Examining the Carbon Footprint of Streaming Media in Online Teaching and Learning"
  • Laura U. Marks and Radek Przedpełski, "A Contribution to the Critique of the Carbon Footprint of Streaming Media. Earth’s Carrying Capacity as a Regime of Capital in the Postdigital Age"
  • Yani Kong (chair), Laura U. Marks, Radek Przedpełski, and Hân Phạm, "Immaterial Material: The Carbon Footprint of Online Teaching and Learning"
  • Laura U. Marks and Stephen Makonin, "Let’s Get Together with a Small Carbon Footprint" https://vimeo.com/556302838
  • Laura U. Marks and Radek Przedpełski, "Tackling the Carbon Footprint of Streaming Media: A Transdisciplinary Laboratory for New Media Informatics"
  • Laura Marks, "Streaming media populate the ether and heat the planet"
  • Yani Kong, "Pushing Against the Substitution Effect: Best Practices for Carbon Neutral Streaming in Remote Teaching and Learning"
  • Laura U. Marks, Joseph Clark, Jason Livingston, and Lucas Hilderbrand, "Let’s Tackle the Carbon Footprint of Streaming Media"

Lectures by Dr. Laura U. Marks

Interviews and Media with Laura Marks