The Fridge Project is a prototype developed as part of our Situated Infrastructure course. This project aims to simulate the life cycle of digital documents through the metaphor of a refrigerator, where files can be stored, monitored, and decayed over time. This project serves as a proof of concept for managing digital documents in a dynamic and visually intuitive manner.

During the course, we were introduced to the fundamentals of data centers, feminist servers, and digital infrastructures. This knowledge laid the foundation for our project, where we combined technical skills with creative problem-solving to develop The Fridge Project.

To bring our idea to life, we set up a Raspberry Pi, running YunoHost. This involved installing the necessary software and configuring the server to host our project. The Raspberry Pi provided the necessary infrastructure to support user registration, document creation, and data management. Here are some pictures showcasing our setup process (insert images here).
Throughout the project, we utilized ChatGPT for various purposes, including technical support, and coding assistance. This tool helped us overcome challenges and refine our project ideas effectively.

Etherpad was chosen for its collaborative features, allowing multiple users to edit documents simultaneously. It also provided a timeline feature, which was essential for tracking the changes and stages of document decay. This tool enabled us to record the process and visualize the lifecycle of each document effectively.

The concept of The Fridge Project is simple. Users register on the web page and select a shelf in the refrigerator to create a text document. Each document has a deadline, and if it is not accessed for a while, the server gradually erases the data, simulating spoilage. The document goes through stages of decay, each altering the content progressively until it is fully unreadable. After the final stage, the document is overwritten as a compost file. If users wish to preserve their documents longer, they can move them to the "freezer" section, stopping the decay process.