"Don't... I can't even think about it."

This is the most common response I've heard whenever entering into a discussion about the impact of the BP Gulf oil spill disaster. My friends don't want to talk about it; my partner doesn't want to talk about it. For my part, even though I do want to discuss it, I'm uncertain as to whether there is anything useful that I can offer to whatever dialogue exists. And maybe frustration about the Gulf is that exactly: a futility of language mixed with the frustration of collective helplessness to be able to do anything of actual use in the situation, which in effect creates a self-canceling predicament of a desire to speak versus the desire to remain insulated from the realities of uncontested fact.

Whether or not you're the type of person that can't stand to look or that can't look away, it's a relative certainty that you have been exposed to some of the imagery coming out of the Gulf of Mexico and the BP oil spill disaster:

Untitled from the documentary Black Tide by Christopher Morris/VII

Crude oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill washes ashore in Orange Beach, Alabama, Saturday, June 12, 2010, AP Photo/Dave Martin

NASA, June 10, 2010

As the actual cause of the spill continues on, and as we are left to wonder what is spin, what is real and what is disinformation in what we are told in the mainstream news, more—and perhaps a different sort of—imagery and commentary is coming in from various pockets of the culture pile. Photographers, graffiti artists, graphic designers and performance activists are all prolifically weighing in on the subject in the best way they know how: by creating something that wasn't there before, and thereby inviting further conversation. What follows is a collection of some of what we've been seeing around the web:

Untitled by Priest, 2010, Mobile, AL

Untitled by Priest, 2010

Alabama street artist Priest has been adding his brand of political commentary in his hometown of Mobile, Alabama. The first image was mistakenly attributed to Bansky, but was soon rightfully accredited back to Priest. In a recent interview with CYFE, he was asked:

How much does art influence your everyday life?

When I look at art in a gallery I generally say to myself, "How did I get here and who are all these twats?" Someone will then say to me, I really enjoyed that piece of art you did on the interstate, you should put it on canvas. Then I get really confused because to me, it is on canvas, the building and the stencil are equally as ugly.

entries for both the Greenpeace and logomyway BP re-branding competitions

Both Greenpeace and logomyway have launched BP re-branding logo competitions and have received thousands of enthusiastic entries. Our friends at Hyperallergic tell us when considering the cultural critique offered by such a competition, the important things to consider are the following:

Does it inspire action, emotion? Does it illuminate a different way of looking at the symbol? How does form, create and enhance meaning? If anything, these images prove the power of a brand’s logo over the consuming public, and many people are stepping up to the challenge of rethinking that omnipresence.

Possibly my favorite recent find is this happening on the steps of the Tate Modern this week:

Mock Oil Spill at Tate Modern, June 28, 2010, Carl Court/AFP/Getty Images and Dominic Lipinski/Associated Press

From the L.A. Times article on June 29th:

...a group called the Good Crude Britannia is demanding that the gallery cut its ties with the company over the ongoing oil spill in the Gulf. The group used a substance resembling oil to stage the mock spill, then covered the scene with bird-like feathers. (One report identified the thick black substance as molasses.)

BP has numerous ties with cultural institutions in the U.K. A recent article in The Guardian stated that the oil company has partnerships with the British Museum, the Tate galleries, the Royal Opera House, the National Portrait Gallery, the Almeida Theatre, the National Maritime Museum and the Science and Natural History Museums.

This quick pass of artistic responses to the oil spill leaves me with the sense that what's being communicated is a desire for a community different from the consumer-community that Western society is typically depicted as being. While it's true that anyone who drives a car requiring gasoline could technically count themselves somewhat complicit with the doings of Big Oil, what's being expressed in the logo re-branding, at the Tate Modern and on the streets of Gulf coast-afflicted states is a frustration with the status quo, the desire for accountability, transparency and a new way of doing things.

I'll leave off with a personal disclosure and a few more links: in my 9-5 life, I work as an editor for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. As the world's largest research center for avian life and whose core mission is conservation and the preservation of biodiversity, my workplace has been ground zero for fielding questions about what's occurring in the Gulf region, what the larger implications are for the bird life and the fragile marsh ecosystems there and what anyone can do to help. Several of my colleagues are in Gulf states now, not just as witnesses to what is happening but as scientists measuring the specific threats and making recommendations to NGO's on what needs to be done to mitigate greater ecological disasters.

Needless to say, the people I work with take what is happening to heart in a way that perhaps only people that dedicate their life's work to studying, understanding and trying to preserve the natural world can. If you are interested in learning about some of the most recent work that they are engaged in, I'd direct you to the following:

Round Robin—the lab's blog written by science writer Hugh Powell. Hugh has been in the Gulf recently along with a video team from the lab to examine specific nesting colonies of shorebirds on the coast. What's written on the blog is of-the-moment, on-the-ground coverage of what natural life scientists are seeing and measuring of the affected wildlife and ecosystems in the Gulf. There are well-done slide shows accompanying each story.

Q&A with the director of Conservation Science, Ken Rosenberg—this is a really thorough and informed interview with one of the lab's experts who knows best what's happening, and a must-read if you want to know what's at stake now and months from now.

The Birds of North America Online—this is one of the sites I manage, and though normally a subscription-based site that covers (quite exhaustively) the life histories of all the birds that live and breed in North America, the accounts related to affected species in the Gulf oil spill have been made free and open access to the public. I'm proud that this information is being made available to the thousands of volunteers that are going to the Gulf to assist in cleanup efforts, as well as to educate the public. You can go to this site to learn about the specific birds affected by the crisis.

Gulf Spill FAQ—this is the lab's main portal for disseminating news related to the oil spill, and for promoting ways in which the public can assist or help.