Trevatt, Thomas. 2021. The Axioms of Petroculture: Art and Political Transformation in the Second Age of Oil. Doctoral thesis, Goldsmiths, University of London [Thesis] https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/29977/ The version presented here may differ from the published, performed or presented work. Please go to the persistent GRO record above for more information. If you believe that any material held in the repository infringes copyright law, please contact the Repository Team at Goldsmiths, University of London via the following email address:
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[email protected] The Axioms of Petroculture: Art and Political Transformation in the Second Age of Oil Tom Trevatt, 2020 Student no. – 33247763 Supervisors – Professor Simon O’Sullivan and Dr Louis Moreno Visual Cultures Department, Goldsmiths College, University of London 1 2 Abstract This thesis aims to tackle three interrelated questions; does the genre of contemporary art have a distinct logic to the extent that it can be described as being axiomatic? Do these axioms relate to the socio-political conditions of our era as they are understood to be shaped by the politics of the extraction, sale and burning of petroleum hydrocarbons, and the attendant externalities of this process? And, if these questions can be answered in the affirmative, what is the politically transformative potential for Contemporary Art? The thesis understands the tentacular reach of oil into culture through the political economy of extractive accumulation and how it is reliant on the huge value drawn from fossil fuel exploitation from the early 1970s to now, and the exhaustion of this commodity.