Ballardian

‘the narcissism of things’, by infinite thØught.

infinite thØught is a blog of critical theory that’s not afraid to use ‘mock’ tactics, ie, it can have a laugh and be unforced, hilarious and poignant about it. It also has a pig fixation that I don’t really get (Is it after Orwell? Or is it a Chris Marker-style intervention from the non-human world?) and that lately has manifested itself in the creation of a lolpig farm.

In fact, i.t. herself (also of the rad-film collective, kino fist) seems to have abandoned writing of late, but it’s not solely down to all that hyperporcine activity. She has been posting a series of photo essays, some captioned, some not, almost one a week for the last month or so.

This one, ‘the narcissism of things’, is outstanding, with its ‘pictures of Thames wasteland’ refracted through rusty industrial puddles.

And the latest is this one, ‘the suburbs dream of violence: a trip to bluewater’, based around the Bluewater shopping centre, one of the inspirations for the Metro-Centre in Ballard’s Kingdom Come. Included with each photo is a judiciously selected quote from K.C.

‘the suburbs dream of violence: a trip to bluewater’, by infinite thØught.

Death had no place in the Metro-Centre, which had abolished time and the seasons, past and future.

Ballard, Kingdom Come.

Of course, Bluewater inspired Ballard to implore Iain Sinclair to blow it up in the London Orbital film, and i.t. is not above a spot of Ballard-style urban anarchy herself, having previously used K.C. as a kind of instruction manual for the all-or-nothing destruction of the Millennium Dome.