ABOVE: ‘London after the Rain’, by Ben Olszyna-Marzys. A film produced for Nic Clear’s Unit 15 course, ‘Crash: Architectures of the Near Future’. Originally published on ballardian.com, 24 December 2008. In recognition of the sophistication of Ballard’s architectural analysis, a raft of discourse has been produced in recent times from within both academic and pop-cultural [...]

ABOVE: ‘Joshua Says GO!’ by Troy Paiva. ‘A 30s twin-tail Lockheed Electra does the big sleep at Aviation Warehouse. Night, full moon, red-gelled strobe flash. Canon 20D.’ Originally published on ballardian.com, 6 June 2008. The photography of Troy Paiva treats us to canted visions of a crumbling, post-industrial America — decommissioned military bases, aircraft ‘boneyards’, [...]

Interview by Simon Sellars Originally published on ballardian.com, 3 October 2007. Cousin Silas is a producer of dark-ambient soundscapes. He has five albums to his name and a few EPs, spiking the vein of glacial electronica. His work evokes Edward Artemiev and Brian Eno. In fact, for afficionados drawing inspiration from Eno’s most influential ambient [...]

interview by Simon Sellars ‘Housing Is A Human Right: An Interview with Miloon Kothari, UN Special Rapporteur’ was originally published in Subterrain magazine #2, July 2007. In August 2006, the PILCH Homeless Person’s Legal Clinic held a consumer forum for people who are homeless or who have experienced homelessness. The idea was to invite this [...]

interview by Simon Sellars & Anna Krien ‘Music Is Not A Bloody Race’ was originally published in Subterrain magazine #2, July 2007. There are two music groups for the benefit of clients at the Ozanam Community Centre. There’s one on Mondays, run by Alan Pavlikas, which is more of a rock-band affair, and one on [...]

interview by Simon Sellars ‘Whatever Goes into the Mix’ was originally published in Subterrain magazine #2, July 2007. Alan Pavlikas manages the Ozanam Community Centre’s band, Shallow Rabbit, which has released one CD and has had a documentary made about it (see Subetrrain #1). intrigued, I crashed one of their jam sessions and collared Alan, [...]

Mac Tonnies is a Kansas-based writer of post-cyberpunk science fiction (recently published by the redoubtable Rudy Rucker). He’s also the author of the book After the Martian Apocalypse, a speculative search for life on the Red Planet, as well as the originator of a ‘cryptoterrestrial’ philosophy that ambitiously seeks to explain (with ‘balanced skepticism’) a [...]

Simon Reynolds is one of the most recognisable music critics around — or at least his style is, not least for its willingness to tackle pop music as an art form worthy of sustained intellectual discourse rather than as a fleeting moment of adolescent flash. Reynolds breaks new ground, melding unbridled enthusiasm with a robust [...]

Interview by Gwyn Richards & Simon Sellars Originally published on ballardian.com, 2 May 2007. Toby Litt is an English novelist who published his first book, Adventures in Capitalism (a volume of short stories), in 1996, when he was 28. He’s since won praise for the dark inventiveness of his writing, a combination of cinematic prose, [...]

Originally published on ballardian.com. 28 February 2007. Interview by Simon Sellars Rick McGrath is a writer and former adman (which explains the pithy insights to come). He’s also the curator of what may be the world’s largest collection of J.G. Ballard first editions; he’s the ‘go-to man’ whenever a TV station or glossy mag does [...]