Two Ponds: Stories from The Petroleum Space-Time Continuum

By Brett Bloom

This publication investigates the degrees to which the use of fossil fuel has fundamentally structured the built environment and how humans experience space and time. Disentangling these conditions takes generations; rewilding is a necessary skill for everyone to develop.

From the introduction to the publication:

I use the term petro-subjectivity to describe the impacts of fossil fuel use on your sense of self and the world around you. I investigate how petro-subjectivity forms. This helps me think through the long term culture people need to shift from experiencing the world through fossil fuel induced relationships. Petro-subjectivity comes from somewhere and some-process. You can locate and analyze numerous examples in daily situations. Petro-subjectivity emerges from fossil-fuel-induced spatial and temporal relationships that shape the metaphorical structures governing your neural pathways. These conditions often prevent you from having a directly embodied sense of where you are. The term I have been using for this place where petro-subjectivity is produced is the Petroleum Space-Time Continuum (PSTC). It is not an actual place, rather a set of interrelations that filter reality when you are experiencing any given place. They repeat everywhere given the systemic use of fossil fuels. They are so powerful that they are present even when you are not using oil or experiencing conditions directly produced by fossil fuel.

- Brett Bloom

5.5" x 8.5", Offset printed, Saddle stitch bound

Published by Half Letter Press in 2021

Edition of 300

Chicago, IL