2020-05-13 12:25
Black Market (2012), Andrej ŠkufcaIn mid-May 2020, artist Andrej Škufca holds his solo exhibition Black Market at the MGLC Gallery in Ljubljana. Black Market presents itself as… Read More
Blog Directory > Arts & Entertainment Blogs > Ballardian arts-and-entertainment Blog >
Ballardian Blog
ballardian.com
Tags:
ballard
applied ballardianism
ballardianism
applied
discount warehouse
infinite sales bay
weird organ transplants
tin ear
crash
freud
The definitive source for news about the writer J.G. Ballard.
2020-02-22 12:57
During February and March, 2020, I’ll be giving a series of talks and presentations in Slovenia, Italy and England. The tour is in support of Applied Ballardianism: Memoir f… Read More
2019-02-12 10:31
Dr Frank Tallis is a writer and clinical psychologist. In a recent interview about his latest non-fiction book, The Incurable Romantic, a clinical memoir exploring the psychopathology of lo… Read More
2018-07-14 13:46
This summer, there is only one book to take to the Terminal Beach: APPLIED BALLARDIANISM: MEMOIR FROM A PARALLEL UNIVERSE.
Dangerous Bends ahead… SPEED UP!
Fleeing the excesses of 9… Read More
2018-01-14 11:44
Nothing To See Here from Paul H Williams on Vimeo.
“Deserts possess a particular magic, since they have exhausted their own futures, and are thus free of time. Anything erected there… Read More
2017-06-26 03:13
I’m excited to announce that my book, Applied Ballardianism: A Theory of Nothing, will be forthcoming from Urbanomic in late 2017. The publisher’s page for the book is here, and… Read More
2017-03-28 12:29
This content is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:
Password: Read More
2017-03-28 12:29
ABOVE: J.G. Ballard and his friend Dr Christopher Evans in the Sunday Mirror, 1968. The article describes their proposed play for the ICA, entitled Crash!. It was to feature a reconst… Read More
2016-10-01 13:33
‘I’ve a tin ear, I’m afraid. I’ve never bought a single record, cassette, CD or whatever. I don’t own a record player of any kind… It’s a big defe… Read More
2016-09-14 13:21
An excerpt from Applied Ballardianism: A Theory of Nothing, text and photos by Simon Sellars.
Foreword by Dr Ricardo Battista
This book details the story of a man who lived in Melbourne, Au… Read More
2016-05-30 12:27
Ben Wheatley and Amy Jump. Photos: via and via.
Ben Wheatley’s High-Rise opened earlier this year, garnering praise, bemusement and opprobrium in roughly equal measure. Some… Read More
2016-03-19 18:53
On 30 January 2014, the paperback version of Extreme Metaphors: Interviews with J.G. Ballard 1967–2008 was published, with a new cover and design. To celebrate, here&rsquo&hell…Read More
2016-03-19 18:53
Rick McGrath is a Ballard aficionado native to Canada (home of Cronenberg, the Baron of Blood, lest we forget), the publisher of the website jgballard.ca and a long-time contributor to ball… Read More
2016-03-19 18:53
ABOVE: From the press release to Ballard’s Crashed Cars exhibition: “Sally Porter places a price tag on a wrecked American Pontiac, an exhibit at ‘The Atrocity Exhibition… Read More
2016-03-19 18:53
Above: J.G. Ballard. Photo by Simon Durrant, from i-D magazine, 1987.
Above: Excerpt from Ballard’s 1977 Vogue essay (via Gideon Defoe).
Response to a post at Buzzfeed on how J.G… Read More
2016-03-13 10:44
Luke Evans as Richard Wilder in High-Rise (dir. Ben Wheatley, 2016).
“Let the psychotics take over. They alone understood what was happening.” ― J.G. Ballard, Hi… Read More
2016-03-05 12:11
The following is excerpted from the Official Republican 2016 Presidential Survey, conducted by the National Republican Congressional Committee, PO Box 2837, Washington D.C. 20013.
With apol… Read More
2016-03-03 10:56
“There comes a time when some sort of radical action is needed. I won’t go as far as throwing a bomb into a crowded theatre, but I can see that some of my novels, like High-Rise… Read More
2016-01-30 14:56
A clutch of amazing new stills from Ben Wheatley’s High-Rise have been released into the wild.
Sumptuous, gleaming, saturated; their colour palette is a delight to beho… Read More
2015-12-15 11:30
ABOVE: Trailer for High-Rise (2016), directed by Ben Wheatley.
ABOVE: Opening sequence to Shivers (1975), directed by David Cronenberg.
High-Rise, Ben Wheatley’s much-anticipated ada… Read More
2015-10-19 11:41
In September 2015, Ben Wheatley’s High-Rise, an adaptation of J.G. Ballard’s novel, had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. Reacti… Read More
2015-04-03 12:00
Trailer for Mad Max: Fury Road (dir. George Miller, 2015).
Fury Road, the latest film in the Mad Max series, is released on 15 May. What would Ballard have made of it?
Well, as far as… Read More
2014-10-20 13:52
Claire Walsh at the J.G. Ballard Memorial Service, London, 2009. Photo: Rick McGrath.
Two weeks ago, Claire Walsh died after battling cancer. Walsh was an editor and literary publicist… Read More
2014-10-11 01:18
The Ballardian is proud to present Crash by Argentine graphic artist Sanyú. Crash is a graphic adaptation of a fragment of J.G. Ballard’s novel by that &helli…Read More
2014-05-26 00:37
Simon Sellars: A Secret History of Ballardian Cinema
When: Wednesday 28th of May, 6.30 – 8.30pmWhere: BL-NK, 37 East Rd, Shoreditch, N1 6AZ
Free entry, please register:https… Read More
2013-03-03 04:37
By Andrew Frost
Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty (1970). Photo: George Steinmetz, 2002.
Tacita Dean’s new film, JG, is currently on view at the Arcadia University Art Gallery, G… Read More
2013-03-03 04:37
By Andrew Frost
Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty (1970). Photo: George Steinmetz, 2002.
Tacita Dean’s new film, JG, is currently on view at the Arcadia University Art Gallery, G… Read More
2012-12-28 03:51
Map of Lunghua (Lunghwa) civilian camp, Shanghai. Courtesy Rick McGrath.
This essay by Simon Sellars was originally published in J.G. Ballard: Visions and Revisions, Jeannette Baxter and… Read More
2012-09-23 08:07
Extreme Metaphors in Waterstones, Birmingham – appropriately next to Barthes, Amis and Bataille. Photo by Luke Robert Mason.
I’m very excited to announce that Extreme Metaphors:… Read More
2012-08-26 15:02
Neil Armstrong aboard Apollo 11.
Goodbye Neil Armstrong, dead at 82 – first man on the moon and a true pioneer. It was said in the obituaries that Armstrong never dreamt of the m… Read More
2012-03-11 14:08
by Simon Sellars
Originally published in the Norwegian-language magazine Vagant, May-August 2011, pp. 10-11. It appears here in English for the first time.
In 1986, child actor Christian Ba… Read More
2012-02-26 09:52
David Pelham: The Art of Inner Space
David Pelham’s painting for JG Ballard’s short story, My Dream of Flying to Wake Island (1974). Signed print courtesy wire-frame.
by James… Read More
2012-02-06 11:58
APOLLO ROULETTE, PART 2
by Brian Baker
In part 2 of ‘Apollo Roulette’, Brian Baker’s sequel to ‘Iterative Architecture: a Ballardian Text’, an ‘auto-di… Read More
2012-01-26 02:29
APOLLO ROULETTE, PART 1
by Brian Baker
In this sequel to ‘Iterative Architecture: a Ballardian Text’, an ‘auto-displacement’ Ian Fleming/J.G. Ballard mashup, Brian… Read More
2012-01-03 03:11
J.G. Ballard in front of Paul Delvaux’s ‘The Violation’ (as reproduced by Brigid Marlin). Photographer unknown.
Interview by Andrew Bishop.
Ballardian presents Andrew… Read More
2011-12-22 03:07
Transcribed by Mike Holliday
The following ‘Guardian Lecture’ took place on 10 November 1996 at the British Film Institute, London. The first U.K. screening of Crash had taken… Read More
2011-12-11 13:23
by Matteo Pasquinelli
The following is excerpted from Matteo Pasquinelli’s book Animal Spirits: A Bestiary of the Commons (Rotterdam: NAi Publishers / Institute of Network Cultures… Read More
2011-10-03 11:54
Outpost 13: The Atrocity Exhibition from Ballardian on Vimeo.
Eurydice in a Used Car Lot. Margaret Travis paused in the empty foyer of the cinema, looking at the photographs in the display… Read More
2011-03-24 13:12
With the sad news of Elizabeth Taylor’s passing, the time seems right to review the appearance of this enigmatic actress across Ballard’s work. Taylor spanned the pu… Read More
2011-03-15 09:58
by Simon Sellars
This is an earlier version of an article published in Continuum, Volume 24, Issue 5 October 2010, pages 721-33. Both versions were based on a paper given by Simon Sellars… Read More
2011-02-27 02:06
by Mike Holliday
JOHN GRAY is Emeritus Professor of European Thought at the London School of Economics. His numerous books include ‘Hayek on Liberty’ (1984) and Straw Dogs:… Read More
2011-02-27 02:06
by Mike Holliday
JOHN GRAY is Emeritus Professor of European Thought at the London School of Economics. His numerous books include ‘Hayek on Liberty’ (1984) and Straw Dogs:… Read More
2011-01-29 01:44
Poster from the IG exhibition, Parallel of Art and Life, co-designed by Paolozzi in 1953.
On Friday 18th February, from 10am-5.30pm, the one-day conference ‘Eduardo Paolozzi Re-readin… Read More
2011-01-06 00:49
After researching it for most of 2010, I am currently deep into the process of writing my book Applied Ballardianism: the Philosophy of J.G. Ballard, due for publication by Zer0 Books in 201… Read More
2010-11-15 06:00
The panel. From left to right: Sellars, Sterling, Vale, Costa. Photo by Martí Pons, courtesy CCCB 2008.
“Hello Barcelona. I hope everyone there is enjoying the show, if I&rsquo&helli…Read More
2010-10-19 06:30
Abu Dhabi. Image from ‘Pillars of Wisdom’ (2009) by Paul Williams.
Paul Williams is stationed in Abu Dhabi doing contract work on computer systems. He has made a series of short… Read More
2010-10-04 09:33
Photograph by Simon Sellars.
There’s a brief Ballard mention in my latest photo-essay, ‘Postcards from the Edgelands (for Marion Shoard)’, originally published in Infrastr… Read More
2010-08-23 11:44
Next week, I’ll be speaking at Monash University’s conference Changing the Climate: Utopia, Dystopia and Catastrophe. I’m also helping to organise the event with Andrew Mi… Read More
2010-08-17 01:44
Modelling and photography by Nicholas Cobb.
This was the first office building to be constructed at the business park, but after a bombastic overture the architecture that followed was la… Read More
2010-07-07 11:21
The Bentall Centre. Photo by Fr3d.org. Reproduced under Creative Commons.
by Mike Holliday
Why do I dislike the Bentall Centre so much? Because it’s so… cretinous. [The con… Read More
2010-06-30 05:55
Registration here
The Emergence of the Posthuman Subject
Early Bird Fee
2-3 July 2010
To be Held at University of Surrey, Continuing Education Centre (CEC), 2nd Floor Senate House.
Full De… Read More
2010-06-14 13:52
Slip-case designed by David Pelham for a Penguin boxed set of four 1974 Ballard reprints.
by James Pardey
The idea that the world and everything in it is made from the four ‘eleme… Read More
2010-06-01 09:27
Another Green World, by Geeta Dayal. New York and London: Continuum, 2009. ISBN: 978-0-8264-2786-1.
Among the more misleading clichés surrounding Ballard is this: for a writer wh… Read More
2010-05-16 12:41
Advertiser’s Announcement: ‘Sex: Inner Space: J.G. Ballard’. Ambit no. 33, 1967.
Better Living through Psychopathology Benjamin Noys (2009)
Presentation at at ‘The F… Read More
2010-03-28 07:01
THE DROWNED WORLD
by Simon O’Carrigan
Simon O’Carrigan. Study for “The Drowned World”. 2007. Digital montage. Dimensions variable.
Selections taken from Simon O&rs&hell…Read More
2010-03-25 12:56
Landing Sites from Simon Sellars on Vimeo.
This is vaguely Ballardian… It’s my short film based on the ‘reversible destiny’ theory of the architects/conceptual arti… Read More
2010-03-12 07:19
Adam McEwen. Honda Teen Facial, 2010. Boeing 747 undercarriage. Approximately: 137 13/16 x 118 1/8 x 71 11/16 inches (350 x 300 x 182 cm).
JG Ballard’s writing has a strong connection… Read More
2010-02-22 13:36
The author of Lord Horror.
Interview by Simon Sellars.
This, the second of our three-interview series with Savoy luminaries, covers the company’s musical and spoken-word output. P… Read More
2010-02-22 13:36
The author of Lord Horror.
Interview by Simon Sellars.
This, the second of our three-interview series with Savoy luminaries, covers the company’s musical and spoken-word output. P… Read More
2010-02-22 13:35
Back-cover sleeve for “Blue Monday”, by Lord Horror with the Savoy Hitler Youth Band.
Interview by Simon Sellars.
This is the second of a three-interview series about Savoy… Read More
2010-02-22 13:35
Back-cover sleeve for “Blue Monday”, by Lord Horror with the Savoy Hitler Youth Band.
Interview by Simon Sellars.
This is the third part of our interview series about Savoy… Read More
2010-02-12 00:24
Ed Ruscha. Fountain of Crystal, 2009. Acrylic on canvas. 30 1/8 x 36 1/8 inches (76.5 x 91.8 cm).
CRASH: HOMAGE TO JG BALLARD
Press Release
Gagosian Gallery
6-24 Britannia St London WC1X 9J… Read More
2010-02-08 04:15
Jeremy Reed at the JG Ballard Memorial, 2009. Photo: Rick McGrath.
West End Survival Kit, by Jeremy Reed. Furze Hill, Hove: Waterloo Press, 2009. ISBN: 978-1-906742-07-2.
JEREMY REED IS… Read More
2010-02-02 02:33
Lord Horror (1997). Image by John Coulthart.
Back in November, we announced our first microfiction competition, to promote our three-part series of interviews with luminaries from Savoy Boo… Read More
2010-01-18 12:51
by Nicholas Cobb
The inspiration behind this body of work came from a growing curiosity about recent corporate developments of private space in London that apparently encourage the public t… Read More
2010-01-16 23:06
“You’ve still got the paradigms print gave you, and you’re barely print-literate”
– William Gibson, Neuromancer
“Science and technology multiply around u… Read More
2010-01-11 22:38
“You’ve still got the paradigms print gave you, and you’re barely print-literate”
– William Gibson, Neuromancer
“Science and technology multiply around u… Read More
2010-01-05 12:29
by Paul Roth
Edward Burtynsky, Oil Fields #22, Cold Lake Production Project, Cold Lake, Alberta, Canada, 2001. Chromogenic color print. Photograph © Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Nichola… Read More
2010-01-04 10:08
Happy New Year!
After Robert Anton Wilson, my 2010 goal is to “create the happiest, funniest, most romantic reality-tunnel consistent with my brain signals”. And so the followin… Read More
2009-12-28 00:46
JG BALLARD, 1930–2009
Originally published in Architectures of the Near Future: Architectural Design (ed. Nic Clear), September-October 2009. pp. 5, 6-11. Reproduced with permiss… Read More
2009-12-07 10:26
‘Magisterial, precise, unsettling’: Simon Reynolds on JG Ballard
interview by Simon Sellars.
In the wake of J.G. Ballard’s passing, Berlin’s 032c magazine asked me… Read More
2009-12-05 03:57
Due to popular demand, the Ballardian/Savoy microfiction competition deadline has now been extended to 15 December. Keep those entries coming! Read More
2009-11-30 13:41
Rick McGrath’s Letter From London: The JG Ballard Memorial
All photography by Rick McGrath.
Sunday, November 15, 2009, 3:45pm, The Founders Pub, London.
Dear Simon,
Greetings… Read More
2009-11-16 13:36
Pillars of Wisdom from Paul Williams on Vimeo.
Arriving in Abu Dhabi my initial reaction, standing on the balcony of my hotel room on the 20th floor, was disorientation and near-vertigo. La… Read More
2009-11-14 02:04
Images by Michelle Lord, from Future Ruins (inspired by JG Ballard’s ‘The Ultimate City’), 2008.
‘Pulled apart by the elders, many of the sets revealed their intern… Read More
2009-11-05 11:07
Michael Butterworth in the Savoy office, 1998 (photo by Ben Blackall).
Interview by Mike Holliday.
This is the first of a proposed 3-interview series. Parts 2 and 3, featuring David B… Read More
2009-11-05 11:05
Lord Horror (1997). Image by John Coulthart.
Coinciding with our three-part interview with Michael Butterworth, David Britton and John Coulthart of Savoy Books, Ballardian.com is pleased to… Read More
2009-10-23 10:24
Although we never met in real life, I considered Mac Tonnies a great friend. We corresponded often via Twitter and email, and I interviewed him in 2007 about our shared passion for the writ… Read More
2009-10-20 21:17
The two Ballard-related segments from the recent BBC documentary Synth Britannia have been YouTubed. There’s also a BBC post about the relationship of these bands to Ballard.
..:: Pr… Read More
2009-10-19 22:29
This is the foreword to the Greek edition of Ballard’s Miracles of Life, due to be published by Oxy in November 2009.
In 2006 I interviewed Jim Ballard. I was nervous at the thought o… Read More
2009-10-05 13:21
Image: JG Ballard and Iain Sinclair in London Orbital (dirs. Chris Petit and Iain Sinclair, 2002).
by David Cunningham
There are few concepts in contemporary social and cultural theory whos… Read More
2009-09-29 11:34
Still from La Jetée (1962), dir. Chris Marker.
If you’re in Melbourne this Thursday, come and say hello! I’m giving a paper on Ballard, circular time and the nouvelle vag… Read More
2009-09-22 13:47
by Simon Sellars
The following are the full versions of three book reviews originally published elsewhere in edited form.
The BLDGBLOG Book, by Geoff Manaugh. San Francisco: Chronicle B… Read More
2009-08-23 11:44
by Simon Sellars
ABOVE: The Terminal Beach. Photo courtesy Brookings: “Beneath this concrete dome on Runit Island (part of Enewetak Atoll), built between 1977 and 1980 at a cost of ab… Read More
2009-07-23 12:30
‘Iterative Architecture: a Ballardian Text’
by Brian Baker
Instructions/ Introduction
Readers hoping to solve the mystery of J.G. Ballard’s ‘The Beach Murders&rsqu&helli…Read More
2009-07-23 11:56
‘Iterative Architecture: a Ballardian Text’
by Brian Baker
..:: CONTINUED from >> Part 1 ::…
♣♠♥♦
The Joker. The Joker in the pack is… Read More
2009-07-02 10:31
From the files of Dr Ricardo Battista’s assistant, School of Specialization in Cryogenics, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Melbourne, Australia.
“As Michael Jackson reac… Read More
2009-06-19 14:28
by Mike Holliday
The Unicorn Bookshop edition of Ballard’s Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan.
Ronald Reagan and the conceptual auto-disaster. Numerous studies have been conducted upon… Read More
2009-06-18 22:42
A few people have asked why I haven’t been updating of late. The truth is, I have been updating almost daily, but over on Twitter (@ballardian), which is where I will be posting most o… Read More
2009-05-27 03:13
by SIMON SELLARS & STEVEN from MELB PSY
Soundwalk by MELANIE CHILIANIS; photography by Simon Sellars.
“The consumer society is a kind of soft police state. We think we have choice… Read More
2009-05-08 09:34
by Rick McGrath
J.G. Ballard, photographed at his home in Shepperton for Liberation Newspaper, Paris. Photo courtesy burningrolls.
In Part 1, I asked whether Ballard’s three levels… Read More
2009-05-04 03:42
by Rick McGrath
J.G. Ballard in front of his abandoned billboard novel, 1960. Photo: Mary Ballard.
J.G. Ballard’s first professional job as a writer came when he was just 22 years old… Read More
2009-04-28 10:22
Photo courtesy of Steve Double.
JEANNETTE BAXTER, writer/academic
The KINDNESS OF JG BALLARD
I was fortunate enough to interview JG Ballard on a couple of occasions. What struck me mos… Read More
2009-04-22 03:07
Photo by Simon Durrant.
+ Share your tributes and memories of JGB.
TIM CHAPMAN, WRITER
I first read JG Ballard when I was 12 or so, after picking up Crash (with that lurid orange Chri… Read More
2009-04-21 08:29
Michael Moorcock, J.G. Ballard and Claire Walsh in September, 2006 (photo courtesy Linda Moorcock).
+ Share your tributes and memories of JGB.
MICHAEL MOORCOCK, AUTHOR
‘Jimmy&rs&helli…Read More
2009-04-20 15:39
I have asked Ballardian contributors and associates for their thoughts on JGB’s passing. This is Part 1. Also see Part 2: Michael Moorcock; Part 3: Tim Chapman, Rick McGrath, Solveig N… Read More
2009-04-20 01:41
Goodbye, Jim…
As publisher of this site, my goal has always been to take J.G. Ballard as a philosopher, rather than simply a ‘novelist’. Sometimes this has truly angered… Read More
2009-03-23 07:02
Due to severe time restraints, I will probably refrain from posting much in the Ballardosphere section for the next few months. This was the regular blog-style section of the site where I p… Read More
2009-03-11 02:52
Empire of the Sun, French edition, Denoël (1985), with cover art ‘Singapour 1945’ by Ronald Searle. Thanks to Herve for all cover scans.
Interview by Tony Cartano & M… Read More
2009-03-08 03:10
Apologies for the inactivity at this site recently, and the usual grovelling apologies to anyone who has sent links, tips, messages, emails over the past month and a bit. Chaotic off-site sc… Read More
Subscribe to Ballardian
Get updates delivered right to your inbox!