#jg ballard

[jimmyspades]

"...the interaction between an anonymous individual and his car, the transits of his body across the polished cellulose panels and vinyl seating, his face silhouetted against the instrument dials.

"Caring for him, I wanted to stroke his scarred thighs and abdomen, offering him the automobile injuries carried by my own body in place of those imaginary wounds he wished upon the actress." -J.G. Ballard, Crash

JAMES SPADER as James Ballard CRASH (1996), dir. David Cronenberg

[maguireboyd]

Crash (1996) dir. David Cronenberg

[aworldofpattern]

Zendaya at the Met Gala 2024, wearing custom Maison Margiela Artisanal by John Galliano, and hat by Stephen Jones.

The fruit, flowers, insects and birds on the gown fit the dress code of the night, 'The Garden of Time', inspired by J.G. Ballard's 1962 short story (explained here by the BBC).

The gown also references John Galliano’s Spring 1999 couture collection for Dior, in particular the gown below, decorated with grapes.

Maison Margiela said:

'A sage lamé bias-cut ‘siren dress’ overlaid with iridescent electric blue organza with ‘retrograding’ in undulating bands of hand-painted metallic crin, swathed in an aluminium material and iridescent organza drape and bow, with a corsage hand-embroidered in a bacchanal of hand-painted impasto in the grammar of the electric blues and emerald greens of scarab amulets, with formations of birds, flowers, vines, grapes and nuts, worn over a boudoir-coloured duchess satin corset. A silver metal-wire ‘reverse swatching’ hat and a black hand-painted voile crafted in the memory of plume and enveloped in matching coloured stockings by Stephen Jones for Maison Margiela, and Eau de Nil velour and faux lizard Tabi interlaced ankle-strap pumps by Christian Louboutin for Maison Margiela.

Created for Zendaya by John Galliano for Maison Margiela, the haute couture silhouette was inspired by the 1930s mythological works of the photographer Madame Yevonde and imbued with the memory of the orgiastic sceneries of the bacchanals of Ancient Greece. In a dance between painterly cutting and draping techniques – unique to each layer of the construction – and the superposition of fabric textures such as tin foil with transparent iridescent organza overlay, the composition conjures the staccato brushstrokes of Giovanni Boldini. The bias-cut ‘siren dress’ is a key expression in the creative practice of John Galliano, which first appeared at Maison Margiela in the Spring-Summer 2020 Artisanal Collection. Infused with a certain ‘snobisme’, the look is given the epithet of ‘86 and Lexington’, a nod to the subway station near The Met.

The dress was crafted with ‘retrograding’, a technique through which variations of thread-work, appliqué or encrustation degrade from the bottom to the top of a garment like the linear base drawing of a painting that hasn’t yet been finished. The ‘reverse swatching’ technique employed in the hat exchanges the fabrics traditionally used for certain parts of dressmaking with materials of a contrasting value.' X

[filmreveries]

Nightmare Angel (1986) dir. Zoe Beloff & Susan Emerling

[geekynerfherder]

Showcasing art from some of my favourite artists, and those that have attracted my attention, in the field of visual arts, including vintage; pulp; pop culture; books and comics; concert posters; fantastical and imaginative realism; classical; contemporary; new contemporary; pop surrealism; conceptual and illustration.

The art of Richard M Powers.

[turnupthestrobe]

[illustrioussanguine]

PSINKTOBER: DAY 18: DRIVE

CW: discussion of sex things

I intend to rephrase the ending for the final edition—I mean “pervert” as an ironic term for anyone classed as “deviant,” but I realize it’s also used to refer to people who actually commit acts of sexual violence (esp. surveillance or voyeurism). My point here is, of course, that sex itself is neutral (albeit a grotesque waste of time and energy) and it’s violence that’s the problem.

[notokra]

InterCommunication’91 “The Museum Inside The Telephone Network”

Tokyo's 1991 museum show only accessible by telephone, fax and modem, with works by Laurie Anderson, J.G. Ballard, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Félix Guattari, Derek Jarman, Ryuichi Sakamoto, & many more https://monoskop.org/log/?p=19463

--

The exhibition organised by the Project InterCommunication Center (ICC), founded by the Japanese telecom NTT, was a pioneering project investigating the implications of networked communication for the museum institution. The exhibition was only accessible to home users by means of the telephone, fax, and in a limited sense computer networking. It was meant as a model for a new kind of an “invisible” museum. Later it was followed up by another ICC exhibition The Museum Inside the Network (1995). The ICC opened its exhibition space in 1997.

The works and messages from almost 100 artists, writers, and cultural figures were available through five channels. The works in “Voice & sound channel” such as talks and readings on the theme of communication could be listened to by telephone. The “Interactive channel” offered participants to create musical tunes by pushing buttons on a telephone. Works of art, novels, comics and essays could be received at home through “Fax channel”. The “Live channel” offered artists’ live performances and telephone dialogues between invited intellectuals to be heard by telephone. Additionally, computer graphics works could be accessed by modem and downloaded to one’s personal computer screen for viewing.

Contributors include Laurie Anderson, J.G. Ballard, Christian Boltanski, Pierre Boulez, William S. Burroughs, Merce Cunningham, Daniel Buren, John Cage, Jacques Derrida, Allen Ginsberg, Philip Glass, Félix Guattari, Pontus Hultén, Derek Jarman, Jeff Koons, Daniel Libeskind, Jackson Mac Low, Judith Malina, Renzo Piano, Steve Reich, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Akira Sakata, Paul Virilio, Robert Wilson, Tadanori Yokoo, John Zorn, a.o.

Edited by Urban Design Research Introduction by Akira Asada, Yutaka Hikosaka, and Toshiharu Itou Publisher NTT, Tokyo, 1991 259 pages

[helpmysoultheeggladsarecoming]

idk what i’m doing gang please just take this

[eelbergine]

"Modern consumerism relies on the subject believing that they are in control, while their thoughts and actions are progressively delimited by a fossil infrastructure that molds the ostensible user in its own corrosive image, leading to an inversion of user and used."

[jimmyspades]

i was in your wet dream driving in my car (crash 1996)

[maguireboyd]

Crash (1996) dir. David Cronenberg

[aworldofpattern]

Janelle Monae at the Met Gala 2024, wearing custom Vera Wang.

[anarchistin]

We live in a world ruled by fictions of every kind—mass merchandising, advertising, politics conducted as a branch of advertising, the instant translation of science and technology into popular imagery, the increasing blurring and intermingling of identities within the realm of consumer goods, the preempting of any free or original imaginative response to experience by the television screen.

We live inside an enormous novel. For the writer in particular it is less and less necessary for him to invent the fictional content of his novel. The fiction is already there. The writer's task is to invent the reality.

— JG Ballard, Crash

video: Tesla driver using the Apple Vision Pro behind the wheel

[isawken]

[lilithsaintcrow]

"Though Ballard thought in terms of film and television—and though we ourselves play the role of the selecting computer in his scenario—this description almost perfectly captures the behavior of the average user of Facebook, Instagram, etc."