Oil News 1989–2020
Using a process called scrapism, defined by Sam Lavigne as ‘reverse engineering the web for critical ends’, Oil News 1989–2020 scrapes every main headline from the journal beginning with the 24 March 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster – until then the worst oil spill in U.S. waters – up to the 2020 crisis in global oil prices.
Oil News 1989-2020, Sam Lavigne and Maryam Monalisa Gharavi. Photo courtesy of the Artists.
About the work
What does oil say when it tells on itself? Oil & Gas Journal, founded in 1902, is the petroleum industry's leading worldwide publication. Commissioned and published by Sonic Acts, and designed by Farah Fayyad, the book enables the narrativizing of oil, previously only grasped as snippets of news headlines never intended to be read or accessed in their totality. Oil ‘tells’ on itself while resisting attempts to totalize its profound impact on human life systems.
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