Oil Standard is a Firefox plug-in developed by Michael Mandiberg. The program replaces dollars shown on the web browser with its equivalent price in barrels of oil. Not only that, the project retrieves any oil-related news from across the Internet. It allows the prices to rise and fall in real-time, depending on the fluctuation of the commodities exchange.
This project could be interpreted in many ways. One possible way is the educational purpose because of its technological resources while another is making a social and political comment. Using oil as his subject, Mandiberg allows its viewers to link the ongoing issues of money, war, pollution, and so on.
I never got a chance to try it out, but I think it is very interesting project. Since the artist did not express his purpose of making this project, I do not know what this project is about. The fact the artist use oil as his subject makes it interesting, but the artist letting the viewers to set their own interpretation makes it more enjoyable. My takes on the project is that the rising price of oil since War on terror and Katrina and the Bush Administration's fault for not taking care of it.
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Furtherfield Review
http://www.furtherfield.org/displayreview.php?From=Index&review_id=183
Oil Standard
http://www.furtherfield.org/displayreview.php?From=Index&review_id=183
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