Media and extraction: A brief research manifesto | Intellect Skip to content
1981
Volume 3, Issue 2
  • ISSN: 2632-2463
  • E-ISSN: 2632-2471

Abstract

This short essay is a polemical exploration of recent scholarship on media and resource extraction, with remarks on the necessary revisions this work entails to the purview and practice of studying cinema and media. Drawing on emergent works that elucidate the significance of media’s embeddedness in extractivist logics, we reflect on the ideas that propel them and the future conversations we hope they will provoke. As old disciplinary configurations no longer fit the task of understanding the technological instrumentalization of life in the face of climate breakdown, we consider the ways in which reckoning with modernity’s dependence on extractive industries and modes of labour reformulate media histories, the disciplinary study of media objects, our horizons of thought and our ways of being.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/jem_00085_1
2023-03-10
2024-04-19
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Alaimo, Stacy. ( 2016), Exposed: Environmental Politics and Pleasures in Posthuman Times, Minneapolis, MN:: University of Minnesota Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Alaimo, Stacy, and Starosielski, Nicole. ( 2018–present), Elements, Durham, NC:: Duke University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Arboleda, Martín. ( 2020), Planetary Mines: Territories of Extraction under Late Capitalism, London:: Verso;.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Ayyathurai, Gajendran. ( 2021;), ‘ It is time for a new subfield: “Critical caste studies”. ’, 5 July, https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/southasia/2021/07/05/it-is-time-for-a-new-subfield-critical-caste-studies/. Accessed 3 December 2022.
  5. Bennett, Jane. ( 2010), Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things, Durham, NC:: Duke University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Bozak, Nadia. ( 2011), The Cinematic Footprint: Lights, Camera, Natural Resources, New Brunswick, NJ:: Rutgers University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Briadotti, Rosi. ( 2019), Posthuman Knowledge, Cambridge:: Polity;.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Brodie, Patrick. ( 2020;), ‘ Climate extraction and supply chains of data. ’, Media, Culture and Society, 42:7&8, pp. 1095114.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. de la Cadena, Marisol. ( 2015), Earth Beings: Ecologies of Practice across Andean Worlds, Durham, NC:: Duke University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Cahill, James Leo. ( 2019), Zoological Surrealism, Minneapolis, MN:: University of Minnesota Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Cahill, James Leo,, Jacobson, Brian, and Bao, Weihong. ( 2022;), ‘ Media climates. ’, Representations, 157:1, pp. 116.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Chakrabarty, Dipesh. ( 2021), The Climate of History in a Planetary Age, Chicago, IL:: University of Chicago Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Chan, Nadine. ( 2020;), ‘ Pandemic temporalities: Distal futurity and the digital capitalocene. ’, Journal of Environmental Media, 1:2, pp. 13.113.8.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Chang, Alenda,, Ivakhiv, Adrian, and Walker, Janet. ( 2019;), ‘ States of media+environment: Introduction. ’, Media+Environment, 22 November, https://mediaenviron.org/article/10795-states-of-media-environment-editors-introduction. Accessed 3 December 2022.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Collectif Argos ( 2010), Climate Refugees, Cambridge, MA:: MIT Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Cubitt, Sean. ( 2005), Ecomedia, Amsterdam:: Ropodi;.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Cubitt, Sean. ( 2017), Finite Media: Environmental Implications of Digital Technology, Durham, NC:: Duke University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Dahlquist, Marina, and Vonderau, Patrick. ( 2021), Petrocinema: Sponsored Film and the Oil Industry, London:: Bloomsbury;.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Damluji, Mona. ( 2015;), ‘ The image world of Middle Eastern oil. ’, in H. Appel,, A. Mason, and M. Watts. (eds), Subterranean Estates: Life Worlds of Oil and Gas, Ithaca, NY:: Cornell University Press;, pp. 14764.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Estes, Nick. ( 2019), Our History Is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance, London:: Verso Books;.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Fay, Jennifer. ( 2018), Inhospitable World: Cinema in the Time of the Anthropocene, Oxford:: Oxford University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Foster, John Bellamy, and McChesney, Robert W.. ( 2014;), ‘ Surveillance capitalism: Monopoly-finance capital, the military industrial complex, and the digital age. ’, Monthly Review, 66:3, pp. 131.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Fujikane, Candice. ( 2021), Mapping Abundance for a Planetary Future: Kanaka Maoli and Critical Settler Cartographies in Hawai’i, Durham, NC:: Duke University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Furuhata, Yuriko. ( 2022), Climatic Media: Transpacific Experiments in Atmospheric Control, Durham, NC:: Duke University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Galili, Doron. ( 2020), Seeing by Electricity: The Emergence of Television, 1878-1939, Durham, NC:: Duke University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Ghosh, Amitav. ( 2016), The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable, London:: Penguin Books;.
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Ghosh, Bishupriya. ( 2019;), ‘ Making water media in 21st-century South Asia. ’, in S. Ray, and V. Maddipati. (eds), Water Histories of South Asia: The Materiality of Liquescence, London:: Routledge;, pp. 22642.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Gómez-Barris, Macarena. ( 2017), The Extractive Zone: Social Ecologies and Decolonial Perspectives, Durham, NC:: Duke University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Green, Lesley. ( 2020), Rock, Water, Life, Durham, NC:: Duke University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Greenough, Paul, and Tsing, Anna L.. (eds) ( 2003), Nature in the Global South: Environmental Projects in South and Southeast Asia, Durham, NC:: Duke University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Grieveson, Lee. ( 2018), Cinema and the Wealth of Nations: Media, Capital, and the Liberal World System, Berkeley, CA:: University of California Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Grieveson, Lee. ( 2021;), ‘ On data, media, and the deconstruction of the administrative state. ’, Critical Quarterly, 63:2, pp. 10118.
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Grieveson, Lee, and McCabe, Colin. (eds) ( 2011a), Empire and Film, London:: BFI and Palgrave Macmillan;.
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Grieveson, Lee, and McCabe, Colin. (eds) ( 2011b), Film and the End of Empire, London:: BFI and Palgrave Macmillan;.
    [Google Scholar]
  35. Grosfoguel, Ramón. ( 2007;), ‘ The epistemic decolonial turn: Beyond political-economic paradigms. ’, Cultural Studies, 21:1&2, pp. 21123.
    [Google Scholar]
  36. Gudynas, Eduardo. ( 2010), The New Extractivism of the 21st Century: Ten Urgent Theses about Extractivism in Relation to Current South American Progressivism, Washington DC:: Center for International Policy;.
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Haraway, Donna. ( 2016), Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chtulucene, Durham, NC:: Duke University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  38. Hausfather, Zeke, and Friedlingstein, Pierre. ( 2022;), ‘ Global CO2 emissions from fossil fuels hit record high in 2022. ’, Carbon Brief, 11 November, https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-global-co2-emissions-from-fossil-fuels-hit-record-high-in-2022/. Accessed 2 December 2022.
    [Google Scholar]
  39. Hendriks, Thomas. ( 2022), Rainforest Capitalism: Power and Masculinity in a Congolese Timber Concession, Durham, NC:: Duke University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  40. Hockenberry, Matthew. ( 2018;), ‘ Material epistemologies of the (mobile)telephone. ’, Anthropological Quarterly, 91:2, pp. 485524.
    [Google Scholar]
  41. Huhtamo, Erkki, and Parikka, Jussi. (eds) ( 2011), Media Archeology, Berkeley, CA:: University of California Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  42. Jacobson, Brian R.. ( 2020;), ‘ Prospecting: Cinema and the exploration of extraction. ’, in J. L. Cahill, and L. Caminati. (eds), Cinema of Exploration: Essays on an Adventurous Film Practice, London:: Routledge;, pp. 28096.
    [Google Scholar]
  43. Jacobson, Brian R.. ( 2021;), ‘ Crude designs for an oil-built world. ’, Post45, 5 March, https://post45.org/2021/03/crude-designs-for-an-oil-built-world/. Accessed 3 December 2022.
    [Google Scholar]
  44. Jaikumar, Priya. ( 2006), Cinema at the End of Empire: A Politics of Transition in Britain and India, Durham, NC:: Duke University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  45. Jaikumar, Priya. ( 2019), Where Histories Reside: India as Filmed Space, Durham, NC:: Duke University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  46. Jekanowski, Rachel Webb. ( 2018;), ‘ Fuelling the nation: Imaginaries of western oil in Canadian nontheatrical film. ’, Canadian Journal of Communication, 43:1, pp. 11125.
    [Google Scholar]
  47. Jue, Melody, and Ruiz, Rafico. ( 2021), Saturation: An Elemental Politics, Durham, NC:: Duke University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  48. Junka-Aikio, Laura, and Cortes-Severino, Catalina. ( 2017;), ‘ Cultural studies of extraction. ’, Cultural Studies, 31:2&3, pp. 17584.
    [Google Scholar]
  49. Kumar, Vijay, and Mishra, Binod. ( 2022;), ‘ Environmental casteism and the democratisation of natural resources: Reimagining Dalit testimonies. ’, South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 45:3, pp. 57795.
    [Google Scholar]
  50. Latour, Bruno. ( 2018), Down to Earth: Politics in the New Climate Regime, Cambridge:: Polity;.
    [Google Scholar]
  51. LeMenager, Stephanie. ( 2014), Living Oil: Petroleum Culture in the American Century, Oxford:: Oxford University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  52. Lovejoy, Alice. ( 2019;), ‘ Celluloid geopolitics: Film stock and the war economy, 1939-47. ’, Screen, 60:2, pp. 22441.
    [Google Scholar]
  53. Malm, Andreas. ( 2016), Fossil Capital: The Rise of Steam Power and the Roots of Global Warming, London:: Verso Books;.
    [Google Scholar]
  54. Mani, Lata. ( 2022), Myriad Intimacies, Durham, NC:: Duke University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  55. Maxwell, Richard, and Miller, Toby. ( 2012), Greening the Media, Oxford:: Oxford University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  56. Maxwell, Richard,, Raundalen, Jon, and Vestberg, Nina Lager. (eds) ( 2015), Media and the Ecological Crisis, London:: Routledge;.
    [Google Scholar]
  57. Mezzadra, Sandro, and Neilson, Brett. ( 2017;), ‘ On the multiple frontiers of extraction: Excavating contemporary capitalism. ’, Cultural Studies, 31:2&3, pp. 185204.
    [Google Scholar]
  58. Mignolo, Walter, and Escobar, Arturo. (eds) ( 2013), Globalization and the Decolonial Option, London:: Routledge;.
    [Google Scholar]
  59. Mitchell, Timothy. ( 2011), Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil, London:: Verso Books;.
    [Google Scholar]
  60. Moore, James. (ed.) ( 2016), Anthropocene or Capitalocene? Nature, History, and the Crisis of Capitalism, San Francisco, CA:: Kairos Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  61. Muehlmann, Shaylih. ( 2013), Where the River Ends: Contested Indigeneity in the Mexican Colorado Delta, Durham, NC:: Duke University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  62. Mukherjee, Rahul. ( 2020), Radiant Infrastructures: Media, Environment, and Cultures of Uncertainty, Durham, NC:: Duke University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  63. Neves, Joshua, and Sarkar, Bhaskar. (eds) ( 2017), Asian Video Cultures: In the Penumbra of the Global, Durham, NC:: Duke University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  64. Omer, Ayesha. ( 2021;), ‘ Coal ground. ’, Cultural Studies, 35:4&5, pp. 92045.
    [Google Scholar]
  65. Parikka, Jussi. ( 2015), A Geology of Media, Minneapolis, MN:: University of Minnesota Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  66. Parks, Lisa, and Nicole, Starosielski. (eds) ( 2015), Signal Traffic: Critical Studies of Media Infrastructures, Chicago, IL:: University of Illinois Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  67. Past, Elena. ( 2015), Italian Cinema beyond the Human, Bloomington, IN:: Indiana University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  68. Peters, John Durham. ( 2015), The Marvelous Clouds: Toward a Philosophy of Elemental Media, Chicago, IL:: University of Chicago Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  69. Peterson, Jennifer Lynn. ( 2019;), ‘ Ecodiegesis: The scenography of nature on screen. ’, Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, 58:2, pp. 16268.
    [Google Scholar]
  70. Peterson, Jennifer Lynn. ( 2020;), ‘ In deep water. ’, Feminist Media Histories, 6:2, pp. 115.
    [Google Scholar]
  71. Peterson, Jennifer Lynn, and Uhlin, Graig. ( 2019;), ‘ “In focus” dossier on film and media studies in the anthropocene. ’, Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, 58:2, pp. 14246.
    [Google Scholar]
  72. Plumwood, Val. ( 1993), Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, London:: Routledge;.
    [Google Scholar]
  73. Polack, Fiona, and Farquharson, Danine. ( 2022), Cold Water Oil: Offshore Petroleum Cultures, London:: Routledge;.
    [Google Scholar]
  74. Porselvi, P. Mary Vidya. ( 2019), Nature, Culture and Gender: Re-reading the Folktale, London:: Routledge;.
    [Google Scholar]
  75. Povinelli, Elizabeth. ( 2016), Geontologies: A Requiem to Late Liberalism, Durham, NC:: Duke University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  76. Prasad, Indulata. ( 2022;), ‘ Toward Dalit ecologies. ’, Environment and Society: Advances in Research, 13:1, pp. 98120.
    [Google Scholar]
  77. Pringle, Thomas Patrick. ( 2022;), ‘ Emergency/salvage archeology: Excavating media and Uranium in the Glen Canyon. ’, in L Monnet. (ed.), Toxic Immanence: Decolonizing Nuclear Legacies and Futures, Montreal:: McGills-Queens University Press;, pp. 23761.
    [Google Scholar]
  78. Qiu, Jack Linchuan. ( 2016), Goodbye iSlave: A Manifesto for Digital Absolution, Champaign, IL:: University of Illinois Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  79. Rawat, Ramnarayan S., and Satyanarayana, K.. (eds) ( 2016), Dalit Studies, Durham, NC:: Duke University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  80. Redrobe, Karen, and Scheible, Jeff. (eds) ( 2020), Deep Mediations: Thinking Space in Cinema and Digital Culture, Minneapolis, MN:: University of Minnesota;.
    [Google Scholar]
  81. Riofrancos, Thea. ( 2017;), ‘ Extractivismo unearthed: A genealogy of a radical discourse. ’, Cultural Studies, 31:2&3, pp. 277306.
    [Google Scholar]
  82. Riofrancos, Thea. ( 2020), Resource Radicals: From Petro-Nationalism to Post-Extractavism in Ecuador, Durham, NC:: Duke University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  83. Shah, Alpa. ( 2010), In the Shadows of the State: Indigenous Politics, Environmentalism, and Insurgency in Jharkhand, India, Durham, NC:: Duke University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  84. Sharma, Mukul. ( 2017), Caste and Nature: Dalits and Indian Environmental Politics, New Delhi:: Oxford University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  85. Sharpe, Christina. ( 2016), In the Wake: On Blackness and Being, Durham, NC:: Duke University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  86. Shiva, Vandana. ( 2015), Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability and Peace, Berkeley, CA:: North Atlantic Books;.
    [Google Scholar]
  87. Shulman, Peter A.. ( 2015), Coal and Empire: The Birth of Energy Security in Industrial America, Baltimore, MD:: Johns Hopkins University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  88. Starosielski, Nicole. ( 2015), The Undersea Network, Durham, NC:: Duke University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  89. Sunder, Nandini. ( 2016), The Burning Forest: India’s War against the Maoists, London:: Verso Books;.
    [Google Scholar]
  90. Szeman, Imre. ( 2019), On Petrocultures: Globalization, Culture, and Energy, Morgantown, WV:: West Virginia University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  91. Szeman, Imre, and Boyer, Dominic. (eds) ( 2017), Energy Humanities, Baltimore, MD:: Johns Hopkins University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  92. Szeman, Imre, and Diamanti, Jeff. ( 2019), Energy Culture: Art and Theory on Oil and Beyond, Morgantown, WV:: West Virginia University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  93. Szeman, Imre, and Wenzel, Jennifer. ( 2021;), ‘ What do we talk about when we talk about extractivism?. ’, Textual Practice, 35:3, pp. 50523.
    [Google Scholar]
  94. Szeman, Imre, and Wilson, Sheena. ( 2011;), ‘ The petrocultures research group. ’, https://www.petrocultures.com. Accessed 30 November 2022.
  95. Tsing, Anna L.. ( 2015), The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins, Princeton, NJ:: Princeton University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  96. Vasudevan, Ravi. ( 2021;), ‘ “In India’s life and part of it”: Film and visual publicity at Burmah-Shell from the 1920s to the 1950s. ’, in M. Dahlquist, and P. Vonderau. (eds), Petrocinema: Sponsored Film and the Oil Industry, London:: Bloomsbury;, pp. 183207.
    [Google Scholar]
  97. Vaughan, Hunter. ( 2019), Hollywood’s Dirtiest Secret: The Hidden Environmental Cost of the Movies, New York:: Columbia University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  98. Wolfe, Patrick. ( 1999), Settler Colonialism and the Transformation of Anthropology: The Politics and Poetics of an Ethnographic Event, London:: Cassell;.
    [Google Scholar]
  99. Wynter, Sylvia, and McKittrick, Katherine. ( 2015;), ‘ Unparalleled catastrophe for our species? Or, to give humanness a different future: Conversations. ’, in K. McKittrick. (ed.), Sylvia Wynter: On Being Human as Praxis, Durham, NC:: Duke University Press;, pp. 989.
    [Google Scholar]
  100. Yengde, Suraj. ( 2019), Caste Matters, Gurgaon:: Penguin Viking;.
    [Google Scholar]
  101. Yusoff, Kathryn. ( 2015;), ‘ Queer coal: Genealogies in/of the blood. ’, philoSOPHIA, 5:2, pp. 20329.
    [Google Scholar]
  102. Yusoff, Kathryn. ( 2018), A Billion Black Anthropocenes or None, Minneapolis, MN:: University of Minnesota Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  103. Zuboff, Shoshana. ( 2019), The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power, London:: Profile Books;.
    [Google Scholar]
  104. Jaikumar, Priya, and Grieveson, Lee. ( 2022;), ‘ Media and extraction: A brief research manifesto. ’, Journal of Environmental Media, 3:2, pp. 197206, https://doi.org/10.1386/jem_00085_1
    [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.1386/jem_00085_1
Loading
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error