communication +1 Volume 7 Issue 1 Intersectionalities and Media Article 3 Archaeologies October 2018 Sticky Media. Encounters with Oil through Imaginary Media Archaeology Naomie Gramlich University of Potsdam,
[email protected] Abstract This paper investigates how media archaeology and the concept of deep time could be taken literally, by bringing authors of early media studies (McLuhan, Innis) together with contemporary eco-material approaches (Gabrys, Parikka) on the topic of oil. Following these conjunctions of media and oil the article first traces certain prevailing narrations in media studies, before turning to the understanding of oil beyond its industrial uses and its catastrophic dimensions in the petro-imaginary of Satin Island by Tom McCarthy. In terms of imaginary media archeology, petro-imaginary provides a conceptual space in which a new relation of images of material reality to media technologies can be drafted, tested, and reviewed. By proposing the figure of sticky media, in contrast to the prevailing metaphors of fluidity, I emphasize their material moments. Keywords Imaginary media archaeology, raw materials, eco-material media, sticky media This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Gramlich / Sticky Media Introduction It is remarkable that Edward Burtynsky’s distinguished photo series entitled Oil consists of over 100 images, but just a few of them show the raw material itself. From a bird’s-eye view the large format photographs depict areas of urban and natural environments pervaded by street networks and vast machine ensembles for the extraction, refinement, and transportation of oil. Since the petro- industry provides a range of refined petroleum products such as gasoline, diesel, and kerosene for automobiles, aircrafts, ships, motorcycles, and tractors, also the powerful industries of iron, plastic, and metal has risen up.