How are spaces once imagined to be empty, vast, and mysterious transformed into something with material and cultural value? Two authors tackle this same question, one from the perspective of the seafloor, and one from Canada’s oil sands: key spaces where the meaning of sustainability is actively negotiated. Deepwater Alchemy: Extractive Mediation and the Taming of the Seafloor by Lisa Yin Han looks at oceanic media and shows how deepwater mediation is entangled in existential hopes and fears for our planetary future. Petroturfing: Refining Canadian Oil through Social Media by Jordan B. Kinder looks at how an increasingly influential network of pro-oil groups in Canada work to reform the public view of oil extraction as something socially, economically, and ecologically beneficial. Here, Lisa and Jordan are joined in conversation with Thomas Pringle.

Lisa Yin Yan is assistant professor of media studies at Pitzer College.

Jordan B. Kinder is assistant professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University.

Thomas Pringle is assistant professor of cinema and media studies at the University of Southern California. Pringle is co-author, with Gertrud Koch and Bernard Stiegler, of Machine.

REFERENCES:

Nature’s Metropolis / William Cronon

Ethical Oil / Ezra Levant

Tar Wars / Geo Takach

Sustaining Seas / eds. Elspeth Probyn, Kate Johnson, and Nancy Lee (referencing essay by Lesley Green)

Oceaning / Adam Fish

Animal Revolution / Ron Broglio

Zoe Todd, “Fossil Fuels and Fossil Kin: An Environmental Kin Study of Weaponised Fossil Kin and Alberta’s So-Called ‘Energy Resources Heritage,’” Antipode (2023)

After Oil Collective

Isabelle Stengers

Praise for Deepwater Alchemy:

“An essential contribution to the watery depths of the blue humanities.”

—Jennifer Gabrys

“Deepwater Alchemy tells a story vital to our present.”

—Stefan Helmreich

Praise for Petroturfing:

“A profound and necessary book.”

—Janet Walker

“Offers great insight into an underdeveloped aspect of the cultural study of energy.”

—Stephanie LeMenager