Petroleum – Kristen Baumlier

Tag: Petroleum

This Sunday – Petroleum In Me and On Me at the Drake Well Museum in Titusville, PA

Posted on August 19, 2012August 21, 2012 by Kbaumlier

It has been my dream for many years to do one of my projects about petroleum at the site of the first commercial oil well, Drake Well, in Titusville, PA. Well – it is coming true this Sunday. I have not had much time to publicize the event, but it is Founders Day and the reopening of the museum so there could be anywhere from 500 to 1500 visitors.

I am going to be doing the My Petroleum (On Me and In Me) , an interactive live performance at the Drake Well site. This piece explores how Petroleum is everywhere.

In a unique twist to the scavenger hunt, visitors are invited to check their clothes, bodies and purses to see what they have on them that originate from petroleum and to reflect on the number of items that they may have used in the last 24 hours that come from petroleum. People and their count of items are tracked and every 30 minutes the person who used the most petroleum in a day gets a winning prize.

A visual list of the most used petroleum products is posted as a visual public pop-up graphic and also is available in printed, downloadable, and Google map format. Participants will be encouraged to return with a larger item on the list that they might have at home (like a cooler, pillow, or football) in return for a souvenir/special prize. The graphics and printed petroleum list has a design quality similar to graphics in the 1850s, the time period that the first oil boom occurred in Titusville, PA.

From the shoes that we wear, to the zippers on our jackets, to the aspirin that we take for headaches. Lip balms, umbrellas, combs, dvds, eyeglasses, antihistamines, hair coloring, and many other objects are derived from petroleum. Oh, Petroleum!

I’m going to be busy this weekend – wearing two hats in a way. A Food Font activity in Cleveland on Saturday, and Petro In Me and On Me on Sunday, but it will be worth it!

Got Petroleum In You or On You? This Weekend in Buffalo, NY

Posted on July 24, 2012July 26, 2012 by Kbaumlier

Petroleum is everywhere. From the shoes that we wear, to the zippers on our jackets, to the aspirin that we take for headaches – it all has petroleum in it.

This Saturday, my interactive performance Petroleum In You or On You will be in Buffalo, NY as part of the opening weekend of the Buffalo Infringement Festival.

In a unique twist to the scavenger hunt, visitors will be invited to check their clothes, bodies and purses to see what they have on them that originate from petroleum and compete for a special souvenir prize. Pictures will be taken of what people have on them and their count of items will be tracked during the event.

Do you see petroleum when you look in the mirror? You just might after you participate in this interactive performance.

Petroleum In Me and On Me will be at the Buffalo Infringement festival on July 28th. Stop by between 7-9 pm at Barfly (162 Elmwood Ave.) and check yourself for petroleum. Every 30 minutes will be a winner!

The location of the performance and the list of petroleum products can be seen on Google Maps at this link: http://awe.sm/h0GoM.

Location and time:

7pm – 9pm Buffalo Barfly 162 Elmwood Avenue Buffalo, NY

Links:

My Petroleum (On Me and In Me): Scavenger Hunt and Interactive Event

http://www.infringebuffalo.org/calendar.php?day=2

http://petroleuminme.tumblr.com/

http://awe.sm/h0GoM

Titusville and Oil City, PA: The Site of the First Commercial Oil Well

Posted on June 9, 2012June 11, 2012 by Kbaumlier

Two weeks ago I went back to the Titusville/Oil City area in Western Pennsylvania. This was my first visit to the area since a few years ago when I was doing some video shoots for my Petroleum Pop Princess projects.

Titusville is the site of the first commercial oil well, and the area where one of the first oil booms occurred. In the late 1800s, Sir William Drake drilled for oil, and as the books say, “ the valley was never the same. “ Oil rigs popped up everywhere.

Oil City, which is nearby had many citizens who had come from Germany, and knew how to make wooden barrels. This led to Oil City becoming the place where barrels for the oil got made, and the area became a huge producer of oil.

Both Titusville and Oil City have museums dedicated to oil history and the history of the region. Oil is still drilled in the area – in a few wells that are in the area.

Whenever I see Oil Creek, I always think back to stories that I read that said that native Americans in the area found a gooey black substance at the edges 47 mile waterway. The black substance would be soaked up with pieces of cloth, put onto sticks and used as a mobile light source.

At the Drake Well Museum in Titusville, there is a historical reconstruction of the Drake Well, with moving and working parts. This rig is a wooden hut structure, with a mechanism that gets oil out from the ground. It does so while making a loud banging sound that goes off every 15 seconds.

When we were hiking in the area – we could hear the well from miles away. It is really loud – and though I had heard it last time I was in the area, I had forgotten how loud it is. I could only imagine how much noise pollution there would be with many wells working.

At the gift shop, I picked up some more souvenir samples of petroleum from the area. It is not from the Drake well, but from a working well that is nearby. If you participate in my Petroleum in Me and On Me performance next month at the Infringement Festival in Buffalo, NY – you might just win one.

How was the hike? It was great. We saw lots of ferns, frogs, and a raccoon. Also four other hikers.

Links:

www.drakewell.org/

Petroleum: In Me and On Me… How Do You Score?

Posted on March 11, 2012March 11, 2012 by Kbaumlier

At the talk last Friday at the Cleveland Institute of Art, I led the first rendition of “Petroleum: In Me and On Me” a live power-formance personal scavenger hunt.

The audience was given 2 minutes to review a list of everyday and household materials that we use each day, and marked which ones they had. We determined that the person with the highest count was 46, and the person with the lowest count was 3.

How much petroleum is on you and in you? Review the following list and see how you do:

Contact Lenses
Ballpoint Pens
Acrylic/Nylon Clothes
Nail Polish
Bandaids
Perfume
Shoe Polish
Motorcycle Helmet
Petroleum Jelly
Transparent Tape
Shoes with Rubber Soles
Headphones
Hair spray
Denture Adhesives
Xerox copies
Computers
Ipod/Music Player
Heart Valves
Crayons
Camera
Lipstick
Checkbook Covers
Watchbands
Credit Cards
Plastic Shopping Bags
Combs
Vitamin Capsules
Antihistamines
Buttons
Bras with Elastic
Sunscreen
Hair Shampoo or Conditioner
Hair bands
Toothpaste
Tampons/ Sanitary Napkins
Mascara
Eyeliner
Hair spray, mouse, gel
Breath mints
Gum
Underwear with Elastic Band
Aspirin
Pleather
Shoes with rubber bottoms
Plastic Zippers
Deodorant
Panty Hose
Umbrellas
Hair Coloring
CD’s & DVD’s
Glasses
Paint Brushes

Also – two more that were recommended to be added to the list by audience members:

Styrofoam
Plastic Forks

A Little Bit Means a Lot? Don’t Gloss Over Lip Gloss

Posted on January 16, 2012January 16, 2012 by Kbaumlier

On one of my first days as Department Head where I work, the Head of our Marketing Department came to my office asking for a favor. Would I be willing to go downtown and do an interview for the local arts and culture show, Applause, on WVIZ, or local PBS station – and we had to leave in 15 minutes?

I said yes, partially as a favor to her, and also to help support the Department and school. I had no makeup or brush, but did have a colored lipgloss in my purse. After seeing myself I the monitor in the tv studio, I had feelings of gratitude for the lipgloss – since it made me look like I was “tv-ready” – and I almost looked like I had makeup on.

Since then, I always have promoted the use of lipgloss as a quick way to look as if you put on makeup – or as a fast way to look a little fresher or cleaned up.

I recently read about some of the discussion that has been occurring due to a feature that Dr. Oz did about lipgloss, that focused on potential health affects that can be caused by using lip gloss which contains petroleum jelly, which comes from petroleum. The health reports focus on putting this on your lips means that you end up eating it – and ingesting over 10 years on average 7 pounds.

In Europe, many petroleum jelly products have been banned, and scientists are concerned that the use of lipgloss might be linked to cancer. Studies have shown that women with breast cancer have twice the levels of hydrocarbons (substances found in petroleum jelly) in their breasts than women who haven’t had breast cancer.

What can be used instead? Getting a product that does not has mineral oil or petroleum jelly. Lipglosses can be made with beeswax, or other natural materials that are.

Yesterday I headed to the coop – to get a new lipgloss that does not contain mineral oil or petroleum. I haven’t gotten rid of my other glosses yet… I am still checking the ingredients and working on getting ready to let them go (I think.)