http://www.simonsellars.com Mon, 16 Nov 2009 10:10:35 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en This is the foreword to the Greek edition of Ballard's Miracles of Life, published by Oxy, November 2009. In 2006 I interviewed Jim Ballard. I was nervous at the thought of matching wits with this towering figure but my anxiety was quickly banished, for he was a charming and generous conversationalist. ... http://www.simonsellars.com/miracles-of-life-foreword-to-the-greek-edition Originally published in RealTime magazine, September, 2009. I began writing about Australian animation in 2003, but only by default. I was in the queues for the Melbourne International Film Festival waiting to see various short film programs, which is what I intended to review. I kept overhearing the names 'Adam Elliot' ... http://www.simonsellars.com/realtime-archive-highlights-animation 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 internal wiring. The green and yellow circuitry, the blue capacitors and modulators, mingled with the bright berries of the firethorn, rival orders of a ... http://www.simonsellars.com/stereoscopic-urbanism-jg-ballard-and-the-built-environment 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 about $239 million, lie 111,000 cubic yards (84,927 cubic meters) or radioactive soil and debris from Bikini and Rongelap atolls. The dome covers ... http://www.simonsellars.com/extreme-possibilities-jgbs-pacific-fictions Robert Bond and Jenny Bavidge, editors. City Visions: The Work of Iain Sinclair. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007. ISBN 1-84718-153-8. Jeannette Baxter. J G Ballard’s Surrealist Imagination: Spectacular Authorship. Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2009. ISBN 978-0-7546-6267-9. This double review was originally published in Colloquy, issue 17, August 2009, pp. 108-12. City ... http://www.simonsellars.com/review-sinclairballardbondbavidgebaxter An artificial reef in the Red Sea, which features in the Landscape Futures section. Originally published in Blueprint, 19 August 2009. Los Angeles-based Geoff Manaugh has been described by fellow futurist writer Bruce Sterling as ‘the world’s greatest practitioner of “architecture fiction”’. His online ideas factory, BLDGBLOG, attracts descriptors like ‘promiscuous’ and ... http://www.simonsellars.com/the-bldgblog-book WWII monument on Peleliu. Photo: Simon Sellars. Originally published in Dynasty, China Airlines' inflight magazine, August 2009. Deep in the North Pacific ocean, 800km east of the Philippines and over 3000km south of Tokyo, lies the Republic of Palau. You may know it from the Survivor TV show, which filmed two series ... http://www.simonsellars.com/palau%e2%80%99s-archipelago-lovely-and-unique Carmen Torero. Originally published in RealTime issue #92 Aug-Sept 2009 pg. 31. IN ITS 9TH ITERATION, THE MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL ANIMATION FESTIVAL’S PROGRAMMING POLICY CONTINUES TO BE BRAVE AND ADVENTUROUS, AND THIS RESULTED IN ANOTHER DIVERSE SET OF PROGRAMS. THIS YEAR, THE BOAST WAS THAT MIAF SCREENED OVER 400 FILMS SELECTED FROM OVER ... http://www.simonsellars.com/tricks-and-treats Originally published on ballardian.com, 27 May 2009. 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, but everything is compulsory. We have to keep buying or we fail as citizens. Consumerism ... http://www.simonsellars.com/crown-casino-a-snarling-digitised-mutilation 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 ... http://www.simonsellars.com/architectures-of-the-near-future-an-interview-with-nic-clear