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Studies how oil has shaped the societies and cultures of the modern and contemporary Middle EastProposes a new research agenda for the study of oil's varied lives in the modern and contemporary Middle EastIncludes 13 case studies, including 2 photo essays by leading artists and designersTakes a thematic approach to promote interdisciplinary thinkingPresents contributions from leading historians and anthropologists, world-renown artists, curators and designers, and younger scholars who are developing an outstanding research portfolio on oilThis volume explores the ways petroleum as an industry and substance has moulded the social, cultural and artistic life of the Middle East. Rather than tackle the powers of this crucial resource from the perspective of macro-economics, impersonal rentier states and large corporations, this book 'brings oil back' into the ebbs and flows of Middle Eastern life. It focuses on the ways petroleum mediates and is mediated by national formations and imaginaries, visual practices, as well as scientific, business and artistic production. In focusing on the largest oil producing and exporting region in the world, this volume sheds light on the effects and affects of petroleum's presence within and beyond the oil-industry.Part 1 – Exposing Oil sets out the main themes through which oil is analysed in the volume (visibility, experience, representation and mediation). Part 2 – Oil Images deals with image making by the oil industry (as graphs, aerial photographs and promotional media) and by artists and designers who have engaged with, and commented on, oil's presence in the region. Part 3 – Oil Subjects focuses on the production of (oil) subjecthood and the formation of oil knowledge

An Anthropogenic Table of Elements provides a contemporary rethinking of Dmitri Mendeleev's periodic table of elements, bringing together "elemental" stories to reflect on everyday life in the Anthropocene. Concise and engaging, this book provides stories of scale, toxicity, and temporality that extrapolate on ideas surrounding ethics, politics, and materiality that are fundamental to this contemporary moment. Examining elemental objects and forces, including carbon, mould, cheese, ice, and viruses, the contributors question what elemental forms are still waiting to emerge and what political possibilities of justice and environmental reparation they might usher into the world. Bringing together anthropologists, historians, and media studies scholars, this book tests a range of possible ways to tabulate and narrate the elemental as a way to bring into view fresh discussion on material constitutions and, thereby, new ethical stances, responsibilities, and power relations. In doing so, An Anthropogenic Table of Elements demonstrates through elementality that even the smallest and humblest stories are capable of powerful effects and vast journeys across time and space