Purple Light
Published in Happy Hypocrite 8: Fresh Hell. Edited by Sophia Al-Maria. Featuring William Gibson, Mckenzie Wark, Abdullah Al-Mutairi, Monira Al Qadiri, Stephanie Bailey, Alex Borkowski, Judy Darragh, Navine… Read More »Purple Light
Travel
Journey to the Centre of Google Earth
This essay was commissioned by Anne Hilde Neset for Only Connect Festival Of Sound 2014: J.G. Ballard. It was published in the Only Connect catalogue,… Read More »Journey to the Centre of Google Earth
Red-dirt Voodoo: Rebuilding Australia’s Northwest
Originally published in Architectural Review Asia-Pacific magazine #128: New Civic Realms. All photography by Simon Sellars unless stated otherwise. In my time as AR editor, I never… Read More »Red-dirt Voodoo: Rebuilding Australia’s Northwest
“Extreme Possibilities”: Mapping “the sea of time and space” in J.G. Ballard’s Pacific fictions
One of the more enduring misconceptions surrounding the work of J.G. Ballard is that it operates in the classical dystopian narrative mode, [1] supposedly mining pessimism, repression and the negativity of a post-industrial age.
Kosmopolis 08: Landing Gear
Photo: Simon Sellars. Originally published on ballardian.com, 11 November 2008. Sorry for the long absence — I promised ‘daily updates’, well, that didn’t happen. It’s… Read More »Kosmopolis 08: Landing Gear
Tohoku Dreaming
‘Tohoku Dreaming’, originally published in Flightless, Footscray: Lonely Planet Publications, 2008. The last job they gave me was book-ended by madness. It began somewhere in… Read More »Tohoku Dreaming
‘Paradigm of nowhere’: Shepperton, a Photo Essay
All photography by Simon Sellars. Originally published on ballardian.com, 26 April 2008. In May 2007 I found myself in England for the J.G. Ballard conference… Read More »‘Paradigm of nowhere’: Shepperton, a Photo Essay
Sealand: On the Heap
Originally published in The Australian, 10 November 2007. All photography by Simon Sellars. I THE room has no windows. It’s dank, pitch-black and deathly still.… Read More »Sealand: On the Heap
Kingdom of Elleore
The Kingdom of Elleore is the oldest modern-day micronation, having been founded by a group of Danish schoolteachers (known as the ‘Immortals’) on the uninhabited island of Elleore in 1944. Later, when the Immortals delved into the history of the island, they discovered it actually had an ancient lineage, deriving back to 944 and the settlement of a depleted band of Irish monks.
Republic of Kugelmugel
Kugelmugel is more than a micronation: it’s simultaneously a house and a work of art. But it’s also a true example of that age-old struggle: One Man against the System. Despite all attempts to squash it, Kugelmugel has endured – and throughout it all, its exiled President Edwin Lipburger stands tall as its founder, its head of state, its defence force and its sole citizen. Now 77, President Lipburger lives in Austrian exile, watching as his radical experiment in spherical housing is reappraised and hailed as a masterpiece of micronationalism (and postmodern architecture).