More details to be posted at a later date.
+ BALLARDIAN
Website recording the career and influence of J.G. Ballard. I’m the publisher and editor. I’ve commissioned and conducted interviews with J.G. Ballard himself as well as Bruce Sterling, Iain Sinclair, John Foxx, Simon Reynolds and Michael Moorcock among others. I’ve also published articles by numerous writers, [...]

‘Hey now, baby, I’m beginning to see the light…’ The author, waiting to go through customs, ponders the notion of ‘flightless travel’ (photo: Simon Sellars 2007).
On my recent trip to the UK, I kept a blog over on the old Sleepy Brain site. I hadn’t quite finished it when Sleepy Brain went offline, but I’m [...]

Best Film Award, Tropfest 07: ‘An Imaginary Life’ (Steve Baker).
by Simon Sellars

Originally published on Sleepy Brain, 1 April 2007.

On April 7 Channel Nine, accompanied by the still-infuriating-after-all-these-years Richard Wilkins, screened the films from the finals of the Sony Tropfest 2007 short-film festival, which was held on February 18. Tropfest purports to showcase the work of [...]

Flyer for Northern Void.

Originally published on Sleepy Brain, 19 February 2007.

Last night I attended the second (and last, for now) screening of Philip Brophy’s 50-minute film Northern Void, billed as a “live cinema performance” accompanied by the real-time sonics of Ph2 (Brophy and Philip Samartzis). Northern Void is set along Plenty Rd, in the northern [...]

Station Pier (photo: Simon Sellars). There used to be a sign here saying ‘Melbourne Welcomes You’, the first thing we saw when we got off the boat, I imagine.
by Simon Sellars

Originally published on Sleepy Brain, 19 January 2007.

I was asked to contribute some thoughts about my family’s immigration story to the second book in Jim [...]

Traditional Yapese art, Trader’s Ridge Hotel (photo: Simon Sellars).
by Simon Sellars

Originally published on Sleepy Brain 19 December 2005.

In late 2005 I travelled around the North Pacific on assignment for Lonely Planet. I visited the islands of Yap, Kosrae, Guam, Pohnpei, Rota, Tinian, Saipan and Palau and had the most marvellous time. The fruits of that [...]

interview by Simon Sellars

Originally published on Sleepy Brain, 25 October 2004.

Newton Armstrong is a composer/performer, ex of Melbourne, now ensconced in research at Princeton University in the US. His recent project for kids, SPACE MONKEYS, focused on interaction design and performance. It involves rethinking and reconfiguring generic game controllers as tools for facilitating alternative forms [...]

photo: Michael Shaw
interview by Simon Sellars

Originally published on Sleepy Brain, 5 September 2004.

Melanie Chilianis, a Melbourne flautist, has sallied forth in recent times with a successful union between the instrument she made her name with, the flute, and technological mixes, patches and crunchy electronic treatments.
Melanie has an honours degree in music performance from Monash University [...]

Originally published on Sleepy Brain, 16 May 2004.

SUBSTANCE D (mors ontologica) tames smooth muscle spasm (commonly known as the “Black Shakes”), as well as split-brain syndrome resulting from information overload and post-capitalist inertia.
SUB DEE provides effective relief in patients of all ages, also combating subsidiary BS ailments such as: hyper-motility of the gut, infant colic, [...]

interview by Simon Sellars

Originally published on Sleepy Brain, 11 May 2004.

Recently I was in Amsterdam on a writing assignment. I hadn’t been there for years and I had the usual backpacker’s memory of the place: hash, beer, Red Light District, canals…all the old cliches. This time around, however, I gained a deeper understanding of this [...]