In my chapter contribution to the Routledge Handbook of the Digital Environmental Humanities, entitled “Digital Oil and the Planetary Oilfield,” I develop a concept of “digital oil” through a close reading of three philosophers of technology: Martin Heidegger, Gilbert Simondon, and Yuk Hui. I used this concept to theorize the growing dependency of oilfield operations upon planetary-scale networks of personnel, information, and machines, comprising a new regime of oil extraction I dub the “planetary oilfield,” drawing on the geographer Mazen Labban’s notion of the “planetary mine.”
In my Geoforum article, entitled “On the Emergence of Digital Volumetric Space: Geophysical Prospecting and the American oilfield in the Early 20th Century,” I draw on some of my dissertation research as a means of responding to the recent “volumetric” and “digital” turns in human geography. In brief, I lean on the earthly engagement of oil prospectors to argue that the oil industry has not only been thinking about the subsurface both digitally and volumetrically for a long time, but, more importantly, has been doing so in ways that interestingly challenge the assumptions upon which both turns ‘turn’.
In another article currently under review, I use other portions of my dissertation research to provide a more acute critique of the recent discourse on depth within social theory more broadly. I also will have a review coming out shortly of Brett Christophers’ new book, The Price Is Wrong: Why Capitalism Won’t Save the Planet, so stay tuned and I will update this site accordingly.
As for current writings, in addition to developing my dissertation into a monograph, I am also preparing a third research article drawing from my dissertation research concerning the technological and institutional mediation of oil prices, and how this has changed over the 20th century. Finally, I am also working with Jennifer Baka to produce several articles related to recent developments related to the Appalachian natural gas industry over the next few years.
In the meantime, you can follow my writing on oil, capitalism, philosophy of technology, and other ad hoc musings over at my Substack.