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Spanish Ghost Cities
Author: Simon Sellars • Oct 15th, 2008 •Category: architecture, Ballardosphere, drained swimming pools, entropy, urban decay
Spain’s economic downturn means that its rampant property development is galloping way, way ahead of potential buyers. And this means ghost cities — in one instance just 750 people living in a development comprising 13,000 residential units. It’s a trend across the Iberian peninsula: Solveig Nordlund filmed Aparelho Voador a Baixa Altitude, her 2002 feature-film adaptation of Ballard’s ‘Low-Flying Aircraft’, in and around a similar development in Portugal. This was a very canny move on her part, welding this real-world urban slipstream with Ballard’s own disconnected un-reality in a story about dwindling population levels and the high strangeness of techno-capitalism.
Watch this BBC video report for more background on the current state of Spain’s ghost cities. The lack of company wouldn’t bother me. I’d move in there in a heartbeat. Imagine the solitude.
[thanks, Joe McNally]
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fascinating.
a treasure trove i just discovered:
http://www.lostamerica.com/aircraft.html
Troy Paiva
i thought it looked familiar.
Indeed. I have interviewed Troy here:
http://www.ballardian.com/light-painter-mojave-d-troy-paiva
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