Initiating a diversion towards valuing ecology
requires exposure to the history, process, and exploitation of petrochemicals
throughout the human landscape.
In the impending climate collapse, identifying and eliminating key contributors to environmental harm is necessary. Our project identifies a petroleum coking refinery located in Texas City, Texas, where the continued production of petcoke is contributing to both local and international damage. Petcoke, an unsuspecting oil refining byproduct that is often used as a substitution for coal, emits greenhouse gases at a rate drastically worse than that of its predecessor.
In order to demystify the production of this unfamiliar fossil fuel byproduct, we are proposing a public intervention that uncovers evil truths of the facility. It replaces half of the existing, functioning elements with a ghost-like shadow of its past, while maintaining production capability of the other half to showcase the destructive occupancy of the present. This mode of decommissioning, of dissolving half of the site’s functionality into a shadow-like remnant, invites people to observe alternating dualities of detrimental productivity and benign unproductivity. The clash between the functioning and decommissioned elements that appears constantly throughout an exploration of the site, serves to visually articulate the extreme juxtapositions between alternative imagined futures. Through this process, we hope to uncover that which often happens beyond gated roads and surveillance cameras, and to expose the public to the sheltered processes in the petroleum industry. Layers of protection that guarantee the safety of visitors may even cause heightened shock and fear of the site. Such an encounter can activate a sense of urgency to eradicate these systems upon acknowledging that the fantasy of infinite production is a mere pipe dream.