'Of oil and origin is a narrated, digital video exploring the mediation of key geographical components and processes in petroleum formation and exploration. Unfolding over three chapters, the work adopts the format of a literary quest narrative wherein a 'space of oil' is journeyed towards from multiple perspectives. Whilst a quest narrative typically designates a location as the backdrop for the physical and psychological experiences of its characters, this work foregrounds the space itself, imagining its own experiences of time, formation, degradation and its on-going transformation through human retelling. Of oil and origin charts a journey from the Earth's subsurface, to surface and thenceforth to planetary and virtual realms. These spaces are relayed through several mediating forms - from primordial utterance, to geological classification and digital visualisation. The footage includes an open-rock borehole, core samples at the British Geological Survey, chalk cliffs in Dorset, and a 3D model of Saturn's moon Titan, which is thought to produce oil-bearing hydrocarbons by non-biological means. The soundtrack combines voiceover, sonar signals, the glugging voice of the oil, and ambient excerpts.'

(Sourced from private vimeo link on September 16th 2016)