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A Field Guide to Oil in Santa BarbaraMain MenuA Field Guide to Oil in Santa BarbaraA project by the graduate students of the Mellon Sawyer Seminar at UCSB, Fall 2018The 2018-2019 Mellon Sawyer Seminar at UCSB825abd0261ed10262ffe105a408c697a541ff4bf
The Tar Pits and the Problem of Scale
12019-01-08T15:41:06-08:00The 2018-2019 Mellon Sawyer Seminar at UCSB825abd0261ed10262ffe105a408c697a541ff4bf3261710This image is intended to portray the sense of vertigo we felt when confronting this site: the remains of the Sattler Mine. This enormous mound of tar-covered rock was riven with folds and creases that seemed both pliable and ancient. Likewise, the tar confronted us as both a mundane thing and a thing of incredible historical weight. This image is striking in that no stable exterior object anchors the viewer, and it is at first difficult to comprehend distance or space. Through this spatial confusion, we endeavor to give the viewer a sense of the temporal stickiness and trickiness of this bitumen mound. Photograph by the Carpinteria Tar Pits team. Reproduced with permission of the photographers.plain2022-01-07T10:42:29-08:00The 2018-2019 Mellon Sawyer Seminar at UCSB825abd0261ed10262ffe105a408c697a541ff4bf