Climatic Media

Reviewed by: Climatic Media: Transpacific Experiments in Atmospheric Control by Yuriko Furuhata Togo Tsukahara (bio) Climatic Media: Transpacific Experiments in Atmospheric Control By Yuriko Furuhata. Durham: Duke University Press, 2022. Pp. 246. This very interesting work gives us a solid history of air-conditioning in a broad sense. A timely and urgent work in our doom-laden age of climate change, it encompasses not only the air-conditioning of discrete spaces and rooms but also that of climate-controlled shelters and atmospheric control on a geographic scale. The terms "climate" and "media" as applied in the title do not have the limited meanings generally assumed. Instead, the author analyzes the science and ideas behind air cooling and offers a range of perspectives on how air is controlled, including the chemical and technological conditioning of indoor and outdoor atmospheres. Although the meaning of "climatic media" is not clearly defined—especially the concept of "media," which is rather broad and confusing to outsiders of media studies—the book depicts the history of the air-conditioning of spaces, from narrow rooms to zone shelters to a more extended scale. Therefore, this book is worth reading for historians of science and technology. How to control air is primarily a technological issue, but it has inevitably been entangled with sociopolitical issues. The author speaks of a "thermostatic desire": a technophilic aspiration to posit the atmosphere as an object of calibration, control, and engineering, as evidenced in various approaches to architecture and geopolitics. The author examines cases including the atmospheric experiments carried out by Japanese scientist Ukichiro Nayaka in quasi-colonial Manchuria in the Great Japanese Empire and his early attempts at geo-engineering, such as cloud seeding and artificial snowflakes, in order to make use of the cold climate of the northern territory. The work also examines the architectural experiments of Japanese architect Kenzo Tange and his group of so-called Metabolists, who designed climate-controlled capsule housing and domed cities. These examples demonstrate the motivation to control people, hidden behind the seemingly technical venture of controlling air. Most effectively, the author illustrates this argument in the context of the Japanese imperial period and postwar transpacific exchange. This historical-geographical setting certainly provides a unique perspective on this topic. Technologies of controlling air were developed on both sides of the Pacific, as Japanese scientists and engineers had special conjuncture with the United States in the backdrop of the Cold War situation. Focusing on Japan, the book therefore demonstrates various broader issues: the early adoption of digital computing in weather forecasting, the introduction of ideas related to cybernetics and urban planning to Japan, and the military use of weather control and poisonous gas in order to control mass protests against, for example, radioactive fallout. Peter Sloterdijk's work on spheres [End Page 285] guides Furuhata's interpretation: "Wearing a gas mask and an oxygen tank on the battlefield is akin to creating a portable air-conditioning shelter around one's body" (p. 168). Thus, the separation of the body from environmental contamination is at the core of the generalized mode of technologized existence in modernity; according to Sloterdijk, "seeking security and comfort by dwelling inside air-conditioned and climate-controlled shelters is part of the existential condition of being modern" (p. 168). This recalls the proud claim by Lee Kwan Yew, the first prime minister of Singapore, that air-conditioning was the greatest invention of humanity and that, without it, Singapore could never have been modernized. The way the book deals with the role of technology in social change, specifically, offers us something similar to Aaron Moore's last works on Japan's technological advances and its foreign aid in Southeast Asia. The lack of clarity on the meaning of "climatic media," mentioned at the beginning of this review, does not diminish the value of this book. With ample original materials and thorough research, particularly the transpacific historical analysis, it gives several clear commentaries on the continuity of science-based technology between the Japanese imperial era and the postwar context. Togo Tsukahara Togo Tsukahara is a professor of history of science and STS at Kobe University in Japan. His recent work includes "Global Climate Change and

Air conditioning · Atmosphere (unit) · Control (management) · Epistemology · Geography · Meaning (existential) · Media studies · Meteorology · Object (grammar) · Political science · Reading (process) · Scale (ratio) · Sociology · Computer Science · Diverse Historical and Scientific Studies · Engineering · Environmental Science · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · History of Science and Medicine · Law · Mechanical Engineering