Iron Mountain Cloud. On the Visual Culture of a Virtual Information Manager

The article deals with the visual culture surrounding the information management service provider Iron Mountain Inc. The market-leading company was founded in 1951 by a mushroom farmer who converted a decommissioned iron ore mine into an »atomic storage facility« for business papers and other documents. Based on visual materials (promotional short films, archival footage, corporate design), the article examines the digital transformation of the storage media involved and asks how the former Cold War start-up cultivates the image of a virtual archive bureaucracy that links the history of »atomic bomb-proof« repositories with the promises of digital access, processing, and administration.