Energy Matters

Davidson, Debra J.; Gismondi, Mike

doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-0287-9_6

Cited by 1 publication

(4 citation statements)

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“…The shifting geopolitics and a rise in the price of oil created an increased interest in the large-scale commercial development of Alberta's oil sands. To be sure, government and commercial interests were active in Alberta well before the OPEC crisis ( Davidson and Gismondi, 2011 ). Government-funded research had been conducted for decades while GCOS (now Suncor) opened a commercial bitumen mine in 1967 capable of producing 12,000 barrels of synthetic crude a day ( Turner, 2017 : 24).…”

Section: Petroculture Mediatization and The Rise Of The Syntheticmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Petroculture Mediatization and The Rise Of The Syntheticmentioning

confidence: 99%

“… Davidson and Gismondi (2011) have carefully documented the visual history of Alberta's oil sands from its early development in the 1880s to the birth of large-scale industrial production marked by Syncrude's opening. Their research reveals an industrial gaze which sought to tame rugged frontiers, followed by the scientific and technological conquest of the bitumen sands through the investment of public funds, which then opened the door for commercial industry ( Davidson and Gismondi, 2011 ). Early representations of Syncrude and GCOS before it, especially those which showed the scale of the equipment and operations, undertook significant legitimacy work and “became selling features to the public, symbolizing the enormity of challenges overcome” ( Davidson and Gismondi, 2011 : 63).…”

Section: Petroculture Mediatization and The Rise Of The Syntheticmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the decade since the dead ducks, the mediated struggle over the oil/tar sands and their future has continued unabated between activists, government, and the corporate oil lobby. To be sure, the oil sands’ ideological grip and allure pre-dates its active contestation and has been traced far back as the late 1800s ( Davidson and Gismondi, 2011 ). However, this article's specific interest rests in connecting the rise of Alberta's commercial synthetic crude industry in the late 1960s with the dawn of the Synthetic as a unique period within petroculture.…”

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confidence: 99%

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The rise and fall of the Synthetic: The mediatization of Canada's oil sands

McCurdy

2023

International Journal of Cultural Studies

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The concept of the Synthetic is developed to trace and trouble the prevailing popular mythology of Alberta's oil sands and place the omnipresence of petro-hegemony into focus in a time of crisis and transition. The Synthetic is theorized as a period of petroculture beginning in the late 1960s with the rise of Alberta's oil sands industry together with a rise in oil sands narratives, docudrama, and the emergence of mediated or synthetic politics reliant upon processed images. Attention focuses on three mediated moments within the Synthetic beginning with the banned 1977 CBC docudrama The Tar Sands and the reaction of Premier Peter Lougheed. This signals the power and grip of oil's hegemony. Second, the short film Synergy produced for Expo 86 captures the thickening of synthetic culture and oil's saturation of the public imagination. Finally, the controversy manufactured by Alberta's Canadian Energy Centre over the animated film Bigfoot Family suggests petro-hegemony's loosening grip.

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Section: Petroculture Mediatization and The Rise Of The Syntheticmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Petroculture Mediatization and The Rise Of The Syntheticmentioning

confidence: 99%