In Conversation | Seeping Into History: Oil Touche

Join us on Saturday, March 12 for a panel discussion led by UCSB students as part of Seeping Into History: Oil Touches Everything a UCSB print/public art installation on Santa Barbara’s Stearns Wharf.

About Seeping Into History and UCSB’s Social Print Lab
Seeping Into History: Oil Touches Everything is a UCSB student exhibition that explores our contemporary and historical relationships to fossil fuels, with a focus on the local Santa Barbara area. As the site of the historic 1969 oil spill, which catalyzed a nationwide environmental movement, Santa Barbara’s history is uniquely connected with oil; however, our society’s dependence on petroleum products manifests in numerous ways, most of which are much subtler than any oil spill.

Seeping Into History, the inaugural project of UCSB’s Social Print Lab, is centered around two series of flags designed by an interdisciplinary team of students.  Print, web, and audio materials provide enriching information and alternative approaches to the exhibition’s subject.

The first series consists of 12 large flags adjacent to the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History Sea Center illustrating a history of oil in the Santa Barbara region, from its geological formation millions of years ago to its contemporary usage in daily life.

The second series consists of smaller flags illustrating the cycle of extraction and usage. The cycle is split into four stages; each stage is illustrated and paired with a depiction of its adverse effects on the marine environment. This set of four “diptychs” is repeated around the wharf’s perimeter, to communicate that the process is ongoing.

Social Print Lab is a socially conscious annual public art project based at UCSB