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Author Archive

R.I.P. Mac Tonnies

By Simon Sellars • Oct 23rd, 2009 •

Category: Ballardosphere

R.I.P. Mac Tonnies.



Miracles of Life: foreword to the Greek edition

By Simon Sellars • Oct 19th, 2009 •

Category: Lead Story, Shanghai, WWII, autobiography, features, medical procedure, memory, time travel

This is the foreword to the Greek edition of Ballard’s Miracles of Life, to be published by Oxy in November 2009.



Conference paper on Ballard and ‘circular time’

By Simon Sellars • Sep 29th, 2009 •

Category: Ballardosphere, Shanghai, WWII, academia, airports, alternate worlds, memory, time travel

I’m giving a paper on Ballard, circular time and the nouvelle vague this Thursday, October 1, at 3pm at ACMI in Melbourne, as part of the time.transcendence.performance conference. Come and say hello.



Three recent reviews

By Simon Sellars • Sep 22nd, 2009 •

Category: Iain Sinclair, academia, architecture, psychogeography, reviews, surrealism, visual art

Reprints of three book reviews originally published elsewhere. The reviews discuss The BLDGBLOG Book (2009) by Geoff Manaugh, City Visions: The Work of Iain Sinclair (2007), edited by Robert Bond and Jenny Bavidge, and JG Ballard’s Surrealist Imagination: Spectacular Authorship (2009) by Jeannette Baxter.



“Extreme Possibilities”: Mapping “the sea of time and space” in J.G. Ballard’s Pacific fictions

By Simon Sellars • Aug 23rd, 2009 •

Category: Japan, Lead Story, Pacific, Shanghai, WWII, academia, alternate worlds, features, inner space, memory, micronations, nuclear war, war

What’s the connection between J.G. Ballard, Hakim Bey and Fredric Jameson? Tracking Ballard’s surreal visions of nuclear conflict to Ground Zero in the Pacific, the paper maps his peculiar, irradiated sense of “affirmative dystopias”, a template for his more enduring urban works (famously, Crash) that, finally, intersects in striking ways with the writings of Bey and Jameson.



Twitter updates

By Simon Sellars • Jun 19th, 2009 •

Category: Ballardosphere

An update on updates…



R.I.P. JGB: Tributes from the Ballardosphere, part 4

By Simon Sellars • Apr 28th, 2009 •

Category: Ballardosphere, R.I.P. JGB

Late tributes from the Ballardosphere: Jeannette Baxter, Mike Bonsall, Mark Fisher, Owen Hatherley, Mike Holliday and Nina Power.



R.I.P. J.G. Ballard, 1930-2009

By Simon Sellars • Apr 20th, 2009 •

Category: R.I.P. JGB

Goodbye, Jim…



Ballardosphere update

By Simon Sellars • Mar 23rd, 2009 •

Category: Ballardosphere

Moving on to Twitter for a little while…



Back in town!

By Simon Sellars • Mar 8th, 2009 •

Category: Ballardosphere

Grovel, grovel.



BBC Radio 7 adapts Drowned World

By Simon Sellars • Mar 6th, 2009 •

Category: Ballardosphere, audio

The first episode of BBC Radio 7’s adaptation of The Drowned World is now online.



"Paradigm of nowhere": Shepperton, a photo essay (part 2)

By Simon Sellars • Mar 5th, 2009 •

Category: Iain Sinclair, Shepperton, autobiography, biography, boredom, consumerism, crime, deep time, features, flying, inner space, perception, photography, psychogeography, psychopathology, suburbia, time travel

Finally: the long-delayed conclusion to my photo essay, ‘”Paradigm of nowhere”: Shepperton, a photo essay’, in which I aim for the traversal of a distinct psychic terrain: the blanket overlay of Shepperton with a mental template gleaned from so many Ballard novels and short stories.



'Naive allegory; messianic tendencies'

By Simon Sellars • Jan 31st, 2009 •

Category: Ballardosphere, comics, consumerism

A Brazilian review of Kingdom Come — in the form of a comic strip.



Creating new worlds

By Simon Sellars • Jan 30th, 2009 •

Category: Ballardosphere, Toby Litt, science fiction

Toby Litt on the best of JG Ballard.



'Destruction of cities'

By Simon Sellars • Jan 29th, 2009 •

Category: Ballardosphere, enviro-disaster, urban ruins

Dan Hill looks at a triptych of post-apocalyptic novels: On the Beach, The Drowned World and The Road.



Sonic boom

By Simon Sellars • Jan 27th, 2009 •

Category: Ballardosphere, music

The first question about J.G. Ballard’s short story The Sound-Sweep put Bill Drummond immediately on the defensive…



JGB: A 'billionaire' in Shepperton?

By Simon Sellars • Jan 22nd, 2009 •

Category: Ballardosphere, Shanghai, Shepperton, alternate worlds, biography, celebrity culture, film

Thoughts on Ballard, fame and reclusiveness, and Shepperton.



Update: Times Crash Competition

By Simon Sellars • Jan 19th, 2009 •

Category: Ballardosphere, visual art

News on the stalled competition to design the cover of the new edition of Crash.



Grand Theft Auto IV: Ballardian atrocities

By Simon Sellars • Jan 3rd, 2009 •

Category: Ballardosphere, academia, comics, computer games, hyperreality, speed & violence

Autogeddon: Martin Pichlmair on the connection between Ballard and Grand Theft Auto IV.



'Architectures of the Near Future': An Interview with Nic Clear

By Simon Sellars • Dec 24th, 2008 •

Category: Fredric Jameson, Jean Baudrillard, academia, architecture, enviro-disaster, film, interviews, politics, urban ruins, utopia, war

Nic Clear leads the remarkable Unit 15 course on the built environment at the Bartlett School of Architecture in London. In this interview, Nic explains the course’s focus on the work of Ballard as a way to counter the lamentable state of current discourse on architecture. The article includes clips of six stunning films produced by students as part of this Ballard-inspired methodology.



'Here's to the borderzone': life after the PhD

By Simon Sellars • Dec 18th, 2008 •

Category: Ballardosphere, academia

Just a little housekeeping note…



Happy birthday, Philip K Dick

By Simon Sellars • Dec 18th, 2008 •

Category: Kafka, Philip K. Dick, features, film, perception, schizophrenia

‘We live in a society in which spurious realities are manufactured by the media, by governments, by big corporations, by religious groups, political groups — and the electronic hardware exists by which to deliver these pseudo-worlds right into the heads of the reader, the viewer, the listener.’ If alive today, Philip K Dick would be 80. A few thoughts on Dick, Ballard, Kafka and perception.



'Because we're fucked': Skinner vs Gray

By Simon Sellars • Dec 15th, 2008 •

Category: Ballardosphere, John Gray, dystopia, music, politics, utopia

John Gray meets Mike Skinner, discusses Ballard.



'Cult of enthusiasts'

By Simon Sellars • Dec 15th, 2008 •

Category: Ballardosphere, Jean Baudrillard, Stanley Kubrick

Diane Johnson, Kubrick collaborator, gets to grips with the Ballardosphere.



Ann Lislegaard: 'Crystal World (after J.G. Ballard)'

By Simon Sellars • Dec 12th, 2008 •

Category: Ballardosphere, Fredric Jameson, animation, entropy, enviro-disaster, science fiction, visual art

A slew of information on Ann Lislegaard, the brilliant artist behind ‘Crystal World (after J.G. Ballard’, the mesmerising animation that showed at the recent JGB exhibition in Barcelona. Includes links to an interview, video excerpts and stills.



'Skid analysis': Vaughan reborn…

By Simon Sellars • Dec 12th, 2008 •

Category: Ballardosphere, speed & violence, technology

If Vaughan was alive today, do you think he’d be using AutoCAD to plot celebrity autogeddon?



Dubai Ballard World

By Simon Sellars • Dec 12th, 2008 •

Category: Ballardosphere, Dubai, alternate worlds, architecture, entropy, enviro-disaster, theme parks

Announcement of the new Ballard World theme park in Dubai, following on from the Egypt, London and Shanghai versions.



'Confronting Ourselves': Ballard and Circular Time

By Simon Sellars • Dec 11th, 2008 •

Category: Andrei Tarkovsky, Chris Marker, Lead Story, WWII, YouTube, alternate worlds, features, film, inner space, memory, science fiction, temporality, time travel

Time-travel, according to Ballard, Marker, Tarkovsky and Godard. Some thoughts on memory retrieval and personal mythology. Ballard and Marker’s ‘fusion of science fiction, psychological fable and photomontage … in its unique way a series of potent images of the inner landscapes of time’.



Ballardian Glamour

By Simon Sellars • Dec 11th, 2008 •

Category: Ballardosphere, academia, fashion, sexual politics

Joanne McNeil on women characters in Ballard.



Drained Granny Pools

By Simon Sellars • Dec 11th, 2008 •

Category: Ballardosphere, architecture, drained swimming pools

A group of Sydney architects are doing their best to rob us of a Ballardian future.



'To write for the Space Age': Moorcock on Burroughs

By Simon Sellars • Dec 11th, 2008 •

Category: Ballardosphere, Michael Moorcock, New Worlds, William Burroughs, science fiction, war

A new interview with Michael Moorcock, discussing Burroughs, Ballard, the Bomb and more.



'Audiopollution! They said it'd never hit us here…'

By Simon Sellars • Dec 5th, 2008 •

Category: Ballardosphere, Hawkwind, Michael Moorcock, comics, music

The return of Moorcock, Hawkwind, Frendz… and Jim Cawthorn.



James Cawthorn, RIP: 1929-2008

By Simon Sellars • Dec 4th, 2008 •

Category: Ballardosphere, New Worlds, pastiche, visual art

RIP James Cawthorn, illustrator for New Worlds and Savoy Books; pastichist of Ballard.



'Unblinking, clinical': From Ballard to cyberpunk

By Simon Sellars • Nov 26th, 2008 •

Category: America, Bruce Sterling, Michael Moorcock, New Worlds, William Burroughs, William Gibson, cyberpunk, features, technology

Bruce Sterling wrote: ‘For the cyberpunks … technology is visceral. It is not the bottled genie of remote Big Science boffins; it is pervasive, utterly intimate. Not outside us, but next to us. Under our skin; often, inside our minds.’ And Ballard’s influence was at the heart of it.



Eternal Layover

By Simon Sellars • Nov 24th, 2008 •

Category: Ballardosphere, airports, alternate worlds, travel

Man survives for three months in airport terminal; doesn’t know why he’s there…



'Strangest Living Atrocities': Guy Peellaert, 1934-2008

By Simon Sellars • Nov 20th, 2008 •

Category: Ballardosphere, visual art

The artist Guy Peellaert, designer of Bowie’s Diamond Dogs cover and more, died this week.



K08 Sequel: 'Galactic Eyes'

By Simon Sellars • Nov 18th, 2008 •

Category: Australia, Barcelona, CCTV, Lead Story, architecture, features, flying

A man shrugs off the clucking of his family and makes his way to International Departures. With the ticketing formalities over, he slumps at the bar and orders drinks. A flat, synthetic boarding call and he remembers his trip: ‘Last call for Silverwing 501. Please make your way to Gate 23.’



Crouching Pervert, Hidden Meisel

By Simon Sellars • Nov 18th, 2008 •

Category: Ballardosphere, Italy, Steven Meisel, censorship, death of affect, fashion, photography, sexual politics

Steven Meisel: rejected by Vogue Italia, embraced by ballardian.com.



Unique furniture of violence and desire

By Simon Sellars • Nov 17th, 2008 •

Category: Ballardosphere, Interior design, fashion, flying

At last: furniture for the Ballardian bachelor pad.



Happy birthday, JGB

By Simon Sellars • Nov 15th, 2008 •

Category: Ballardosphere

Happy birthday, Mr Ballard.



No glot… C’lom Fliday

By Simon Sellars • Nov 15th, 2008 •

Category: Ballardosphere, William Burroughs

Preliminary news about the 50th anniversary celebrations for Naked Lunch.



Feral architecture

By Simon Sellars • Nov 14th, 2008 •

Category: Ballardosphere, architecture, film, science fiction

BLDGBLOG on Ballard, resampled architecture, homogenous global space and Michael Winterbottom.



Sex times Esquire equals a lesbian expose on the cover

By Simon Sellars • Nov 14th, 2008 •

Category: Ballardosphere, sexual politics, technology

Ballard in Esquire.



Kosmopolis 08: Landing Gear

By Simon Sellars • Nov 11th, 2008 •

Category: Barcelona, Futurists, Lou Reed, Salvador Dali, Toby Litt, academia, alternate worlds, architecture, celebrity culture, crime, features, inner space, media landscape, surrealism, theme parks, visual art

I’ve finally captured my impressions of Barcelona and Kosmopolis, with main ingredients: Lou Reed, Claire Walsh, Laurie Anderson, Kafka, Brecht, Dali, brilliant public space, Ballard, and the sheer unbridled thrill of one of the most amazing cities in Europe.



Kosmopolis 08: Switching stations

By Simon Sellars • Oct 25th, 2008 •

Category: Australia, Barcelona, Chris Marker, alternate worlds, architecture, body horror, deep time, features, flying, posthumanism, psychopathology

Here are some preliminary thoughts from the city of Barcelona, where I am appearing on a panel to talk about the work of J.G. Ballard as part of the Kosmopolis literary festival.



Kosmopolis 08

By Simon Sellars • Oct 19th, 2008 •

Category: Ballardosphere, Barcelona, Salvador Dali

I’m off to Barcelona to talk about Ballard with Vale and Bruce Sterling as part of the Kosmopolis literary festival. If you’re Catalonia-bound, come and say hi.



Ballard & Lovecraft, part 3

By Simon Sellars • Oct 18th, 2008 •

Category: Ballardosphere, H.P. Lovecraft, body horror, horror, medical procedure

Ballard on horror fiction: ‘There are sudden glimpses of the shocking and unspeakable in my fiction too, so there is a certain overlap’.



'The Meaning, if Any, of Life': New Ballard Book

By Simon Sellars • Oct 17th, 2008 •

Category: Lead Story, autobiography, features, medical procedure

Stunning news — a new book from JGB in the works: ‘Outline for a new book, working title Conversations with My Physician. The physician in question is oncologist Professor Jonathan Waxman of Imperial College, London, who is treating Ballard for prostate cancer. While it is in part a book about cancer, and Ballard’s struggle with it, it moves on to broader themes — indeed, the subtitle is The Meaning, if Any, of Life.’



Spanish Ghost Cities

By Simon Sellars • Oct 15th, 2008 •

Category: Ballardosphere, architecture, drained swimming pools, entropy, urban decay

Solveig Nordlund’s Ballard adaptation, Aparelho Voador a Baixa Altitude, is rooted in reality, as this report on Spain’s ghost towns demonstrates.



'Brecht Meeting Ballard': Militant Modernism

By Simon Sellars • Oct 14th, 2008 •

Category: Ballardosphere, architecture

Announcement for Owen Hatherley’s new book, Militant Modernism.