Archive for the ‘deep time’ Category
By
James Pardey •
Jun 14th, 2010 •
Category:
Ernst, Lead Story, New Worlds, Salvador Dali, deep time, features, inner space, short stories, surrealism, visual art
For Ballard surrealist art was one of many possible routes to inner space. But inner space in its quintessentially Ballardian form needed something other than surrealist reproductions on the covers of his books. This was the challenge facing David Pelham, when Penguin’s Ballard titles came up for reprint.
By
Brian Baker •
Jul 23rd, 2009 •
Category:
America, Lead Story, New Worlds, Shanghai, WWII, academia, alternate worlds, architecture, death of affect, deep time, features, film, inner space, invisible literature, memory, pastiche, perception, short stories, time travel
Readers hoping to solve the mystery of J.G. Ballard’s ‘The Beach Murders’ may care to approach it in the form of a card game. Some of the principal clues have been alphabetized, some left as they were found, scrawled on to the backs of a deck of cards. Readers are invited to recombine the order of the cards to arrive at a solution. Obviously any number of solutions is possible, and the final answer to the mystery lies forever hidden.
By
Brian Baker •
Jul 23rd, 2009 •
Category:
America, New Worlds, Shanghai, WWII, academia, alternate worlds, architecture, death of affect, deep time, film, inner space, invisible literature, memory, pastiche, perception, short stories, temporality, time travel
‘Iterative Architecture: a Ballardian Text’ by Brian Baker ..:: CONTINUED from >> Part 1 ::… ♣♠♥♦ The Joker. The Joker in the pack is the card that, in some games, can replace (or substitute for, take the place of) any of the others. In this sense, the Joker is the empty sign. ♣♠♥♦ Hearts ♥ [...]
By
Simon Sellars Melb Psy •
May 27th, 2009 •
Category:
Australia, CCTV, Lead Story, advertising, alternate worlds, architecture, audio, boredom, consumerism, death of affect, deep time, fascism, features, hyperreality, leisure, micronations, occult, perception, photography, psychogeography, schizophrenia, surveillance, temporality, time travel, utopia
Simon Sellars, Mel Chilianis and Melb Psy take an audiovisual tour of Melbourne’s Crown Casino, seeking to map the coordinates of this micronational zone — consumer-driven control space with a raging need.
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.
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.
By
Rick McGrath •
Jul 29th, 2008 •
Category:
Barcelona, David Cronenberg, Lead Story, Salvador Dali, Shanghai, alternate worlds, autobiography, deep time, dystopia, enviro-disaster, features, gated communities, inner space, medical procedure, surrealism, visual art
Transmission from Barcelona stop Having a wonderful time stop I believe in nothing stop Lost in surreal image machine and deep-blue-drenched corridors stretching to infinity stop Startling comma perverse visuals stop Rare books and writing stop Exhibition a raging success stop JGB would be proud stop Full letter to follow comma Love Rick end transmission
By
Jordi Costa •
Jul 26th, 2008 •
Category:
Alain Robbe-Grillet, America, Bruce Sterling, Shanghai, Shepperton, Steven Spielberg, WWII, autobiography, deep time, drained swimming pools, features, flying, hyperreality, inner space, literature, medical procedure, science fiction, sexual politics, space relics, speed & violence, surrealism, technology, war
Jordi Costa, the curator of J.G. Ballard: Autopsy of the New Millennium, currently exhibiting at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, gifts us this incisive analysis of the major themes in Ballard’s work. Accompanying the essay is the alternate version of the exhibition’s promo trailer.
By
Simon Sellars •
Jul 18th, 2008 •
Category:
Ballardosphere, Chris Marker, deep time, film, inner space, photography, science fiction
New Marker blog: ‘Quoting mostly, writing little, ever fascinated by and admiring always the oeuvre of Chris Marker, le plus célèbre des cinéastes inconnus.’
By
Mike Holliday •
Jul 3rd, 2008 •
Category:
America, Lead Story, deep time, features, flying, inner space, space relics, temporality, time travel, urban decay
Mike Holliday investigates a strange interregnum in Ballard’s career, three short stories that return to earlier concerns: psychological dislocations and disturbances, somehow caused by human space-flight, in our perception of the flow of time.
By
Simon Sellars •
Jun 29th, 2008 •
Category:
Ballardosphere, alternate worlds, architecture, deep time, enviro-disaster, urban decay, urban ruins, visual art
Film and media studio floods London 82 years hence, evokes Ballard.
By
Simon Sellars •
Jun 25th, 2008 •
Category:
Ballardosphere, alternate worlds, deep time, film
Jean Seberg, Rudy Wurlitzer and Ballard…
By
Simon Sellars •
Jun 6th, 2008 •
Category:
America, Lead Story, Philip K. Dick, alternate worlds, architecture, deep time, entropy, enviro-disaster, flying, interviews, photography, science fiction, speed & violence, surrealism, urban decay, urban ruins, visual art
Troy Paiva’s desert photography evokes the crumbling, decadent resorts and enervated cityscapes of Ballard’s Vermilion Sands and Hello America stories. Enjoy this interview with Troy, the Light-Painter of Mojave D.
By
Simon Sellars •
Apr 22nd, 2008 •
Category:
Ballardosphere, Salvador Dali, architecture, celebrity culture, consumerism, deep time, photography, psychology, sexual politics, speed & violence, surrealism, visual art
For this upcoming exhibition, the International Project Space in Birmingham will be transformed into the J.G. Ballard Centre for Psychopathological Research, “an institute built to interrogate the New Psychology explored in Ballard’s fiction.”
By
Simon Sellars •
Apr 21st, 2008 •
Category:
Ballardosphere, deep time, inner space, urban ruins, visual art
Details of a new exhibition in London that “often plays with the constants of space and time”. It includes the work of Michelle Lord, whose “Future Ruins” series previously featured on Ballardian.
By
Dan OHara •
Mar 15th, 2008 •
Category:
Germany, WWII, archival, biology, deep time, entropy, enviro-disaster, inner space, science fiction, surrealism
Dan O’Hara has re-translated three interviews with JGB, originally published in German in the 60s, in which Ballard provides absorbing insight into his enviro-disaster trilogy: The Drowned World, The Drought and The Crystal World.
By
Simon Sellars •
Oct 2nd, 2007 •
Category:
Ballardosphere, Shanghai, Shepperton, deep time, travel
Above: the Ballard family’s former house, now lit up in the colours of capitalism. Photo: Rick McGrath. “Do you believe in synchronicity?” Andy asked. “That’s the 10 o’clock signal for today’s national anniversary. Sirens are blowing all over the country right now.” He leaned in, conspiratorially. “It was precisely 70 years ago today the Japanese [...]
By
Pippa Tandy •
Aug 27th, 2007 •
Category:
Shanghai, Steven Spielberg, WWII, deep time, features, film, filmography
ABOVE: Youtube uplink for Shanghai Jim (BBC Bookmark, 1991; produced by James Runcie). by Pippa Tandy SHANGHAI JIM (1991) Director/Producer: James Runcie Executive Producer: Nigel Williams Starring: J.G. Ballard, Michael Troughton, Hans Gebruers See here for a transcript of J.G. Ballard’s commentary from the film. DOCUMENTARY FILMS about the lives and works of artists have [...]
By
Ballardian •
Aug 27th, 2007 •
Category:
Ballardosphere, Shepperton, WWII, deep time, features, film, filmography, flying
ABOVE: Youtube uplink for Shanghai Jim (BBC Bookmark, 1991; produced by James Runcie). NOTE: The following is a transcription taken from J.G. Ballard’s commentary for the documentary Shanghai Jim. It also transcribes the film’s brief interviews with his daughters, Fay and Bea, and the film’s direct quotes from Ballard’s work. See here for Pippa Tandy’s [...]
By
Simon Sellars •
Mar 6th, 2007 •
Category:
Ballardosphere, architecture, deep time, surrealism, visual art
Nice article by Jonathan Jones tracing the influence of Surrealism, including in the works of Ballard. It’s as neat a summation as you’d want of one of JGB’s major inspirations: When we speak of something being surreal, we mean something between funny peculiar and funny ha-ha. It is undoubtedly this comic dimension that made surrealism [...]
By
Simon Sellars •
Feb 26th, 2007 •
Category:
Ballardosphere, Jean Baudrillard, celebrity culture, cyberpunk, deep time, photography, space relics, speed & violence
Photo: Stephen Hughes. Read recently… + Via Fanny Magnate, David Chandler’s essay on the work of photographer Stephen Hughes: Over the last five years Hughes has worked all over Europe, developing an interest in what might be called ‘peripheral places’, sometimes places literally on the edge — of cities perhaps, or by the sea — [...]
By
Simon Sellars •
Oct 10th, 2006 •
Category:
bibliography, deep time, enviro-disaster, inner space, urban decay
OPENING LINE: “Soon it would be too hot.” From Amazon UK: In the 21st century, fluctuations in solar radiation have caused the ice-caps to melt and the seas to rise. Global temperatures have climbed, and civilization has retreated to the Arctic and Antarctic circles. London is a city now inundated by a primeval swamp, to [...]
By
Simon Sellars •
Oct 8th, 2006 •
Category:
bibliography, deep time, enviro-disaster, urban decay
OPENING LINE: “At noon, when Dr Charles Ransom moored his houseboat in the entrance to the river, he saw Quilter, the idiot son of the old woman who lived in the ramshackle barge outside the yacht basin, standing on a spur of exposed rock on the opposite bank and smiling at the dead birds floating [...]
By
Simon Sellars •
Oct 8th, 2006 •
Category:
bibliography, deep time, inner space
OPENING LINE: “Above all, the darkness of the river was what impressed Dr. Sanders as he looked out for the first time across the open mouth of the Matarre estuary.” Ballard’s fourth novel. My 1993 Flamingo version has quotes on the back: Through a ‘leaking’ of time and a supersaturation of matter, a forest area [...]
By
Simon Sellars •
Sep 16th, 2006 •
Category:
America, William Burroughs, bibliography, celebrity culture, deep time, media landscape
OPENING LINE: ‘There’s gold, Wayne, gold dust everywhere! Wake up! The streets of America are paved with gold!’. From the Carroll & Grad 1981 edition: A century after America’s financial collapse and the climactic upheavals of the 1990s, Wayne stows away on SS Apollo, bound for the New World on a voyage of rediscovery. He [...]
By
Simon Sellars •
Sep 5th, 2006 •
Category:
Salvador Dali, WWII, William Burroughs, advertising, architecture, bibliography, boredom, celebrity culture, consumerism, death of affect, deep time, dystopia, enviro-disaster, fashion, film, flying, humour, invisible literature, media landscape, medical procedure, non-fiction, photography, politics, psychogeography, psychology, science fiction, sexual politics, space relics, speed & violence, surrealism, television, urban decay, visual art
OPENING LINE: “In his prime the Hollywood screenwriter was one of the tragic figures of our age, evoking the special anguish that arises from feeling sorry for oneself while making large amounts of money”. (from ‘The Sweet Smell of Excess’). From the 1996 Harper Collins edition: The first-ever collection of J.G. Ballard’s articles and reviews, [...]
By
Simon Sellars •
Sep 1st, 2006 •
Category:
New Worlds, Shepperton, WWII, advertising, architecture, bibliography, boredom, celebrity culture, consumerism, death of affect, deep time, dystopia, enviro-disaster, flying, humour, invisible literature, media landscape, medical procedure, photography, politics, psychogeography, psychology, science fiction, sexual politics, short stories, space relics, speed & violence, suicide, surrealism, television, terrorism, urban decay, urban revolt, visual art
OPENING LINE: “I first met Jane Ciracylides during the Recess, that world slump of boredom, lethargy and high summer which carried us all so blissfully through ten unforgettable years, and I suppose that may have had a lot to do with what went on between us.” (from ‘Prima Belladonna’). From the 2001 Flamingo edition (originally [...]
By
Simon Sellars •
Sep 1st, 2006 •
Category:
advertising, bibliography, consumerism, deep time, dystopia, sport, terrorism, urban revolt
OPENING LINE: “The suburbs dream of violence.” From the 2006 Fourth Estate edition: Richard Pearson, unemployed advertising executive and life-long rebel, is driving out to Brooklands, a motorway town on the A25. A few weeks earlier his father was fatally wounded at the Metro-Centre, a vast shopping mall in the middle of this apparently peaceful [...]
By
Simon Sellars •
Oct 7th, 2005 •
Category:
Chris Marker, New Worlds, Philip K. Dick, deep time, film, photography, reviews, science fiction, suicide
Nothing sorts memories from ordinary moments. They claim remembrance when they show their scars. Chris Marker. La Jetée. review by Simon Sellars The films of Chris Marker are often termed ‘essayist’, participating in a phenomenological play with deep roots in French intellectualism. Working within documentary and pseudo-documentary modes, they mimic the manner in which memory [...]