# letting jg ballard die a call for more experimental (hyperballardian) research a beetle extract from a never forthcoming research pamphlet simulation "flock (/w/) jg ballard" via ludonautic researcher robert what - in a generally ballardian style // image here: hyperballards in/of the desert real psyfi visionary jg. ballard is thoroughly dead yet officially sanctioned culture refuses to let ir stay that way contentedly picking over ir mouldy corpse with every flat smooth word they utter about or around ir (/it / n) first off - after crawling out of the woodwork to claim ballard's greatness (and therefore ir own by proxy) - unrepentantly racist martin 'oh i was always a fan' amis can go jump into the nearest drained ivory swimming pool consider this a call for no more polite / mystified ballardian discussions; let modern researchers immediately and unceremoniously burn ir historical corpse in abandoned desert hotels filled with equally musty academic papers consider some effortlessly violent 'recreationally psychopathoillogical' need to constantly reinvent / re-view ballard as eminently dis-respectable grotesque dangerously unpredictable and tastelessly alien angular oblique (in other worlds atrocious) to move a little way past or beyond ballardian - to become 'hyperballadian' in order to discuss or approach the ballardian at all ballard needs to die properly - needs more critical uncertain critique and less arse kissing by the ancient ones - so the ballardian may breathe on - evolve mutate remain free of the shackles of desiccated academia who constrain the ballardian via inherently conservative analysis and by dead nice words carefully selected and pruned to remain safe and innocuous to one's golfing / publishing buddies at awful ballard-lite style / themed conferences full of back-slapping 'white people white wine and white walls' - crusty sycophants and torpid hangers on in pressed suits pimping out ballard's otherwise living memory-flux in strict service of ir tepid dissections and effortlessly traditional self-effacing middle class three-book-deal industry horse droppings like gangs of minor accountants such tasteless drones with an endlessly pragmatic applicability and pseudo-holistic approaches to the digital strategy they see and seek in ballard do not have a monopoly on defining "the ballardian" - they do not in fact have ir or the strange research spaces ey initiated and catalysed neatly all wrapped up mind you neither did ballard(tm) himself who was in any (strange) case embodied a polymorphic multiplicity of fuzzy often contradictory influences attitudes final approaches - arching elaborately signalled bioelectric cyphers launched without ever quite landing (often merely continually crashing perverse slow motion neuro-cultural autopsies) contrary to popular elitist (academic) belief not everything in life or existence may be indiscriminately sprayed with "instant ballard" and automatically stick. rather we must make ballardian nobody's - view or treat the ballardian as a necessarily fragmentary attitude / dangerously unsustainable yet necessary altitude - that of harcore research & development that is to act as thoroughly experimental with the ballardian as ballard was when ey first appeared on the (virtual) scene (caption id="attachment_37956" align="aligncenter" width="656") vaughn logos: hyperballard research(/caption) to this non-end to this (indirect) process researchers of robert what and in the simulated garmes of big science call on the mighty idealization-sim / nightmare mega-highway tv angel "vaughan" - triassic patron anti-saint of research and atrocity exhibit triple zero direct from the deep chrome void - to theatrically re-deconstruct ballard / ballardian via nonlinear series of transgressive biotech skirmishes in unexpected images simulations and (/un)form-potentialities - unexpected that is even to themselves this is not a manifesto but a "yes and" call / response - a call for ballard as a potential living reality for alternative conceptual spaces - an undecidedly im/non-practical ballardinism which may on the internal strength and failures of those who research it - simply burst our on/as the scene as usual will self is on the right tracks **update patch**: 'simon sellars twitter meltdown' the minor tale of a mild academic meltdown on twitter. apparently academic book publisher and ballard expert simon sellars has a hot rap-style beef with this research lab site (caption id="attachment_40910" align="aligncenter" width="656") ballardian simon sellars temporarily looses it on twitter(/caption) **+** you currently follow @ballardian on twitter. simon sellars is a smart guy and ballardian.com was a favorite site for many years **+** anyway mr. sellars tweeted something sarcastic about the phil collins autobiography and you replied stating that "in the air tonight" was by now a long standing western / jungian hyper-dream institution **+** mr. sellars then immediately replied "henry swanson rides again" - you assumed ey remembered you writing under this name for the (unpaid) interview you helped ir with about awesome night photographer troy paiva **+** you replied "yeah baby!" pleased that mr. sellars remembered kind of **+** bizarrely mr. sellars than asked you (something like) 'which particular henry swanson you were - the henry swanson who was making a name off ir back or the "prick" taking the piss out of ir applied ballardianism' (the title of one of ir many nice ballard themed tomes in waterstones no doubt) **+** somewhat surprised at this unchecked undercurrent of academic anger you replied you were neither calmly citing the old url of that cool interview **+** it was about now that mr. simon sellars must of deleted ir previous "prick" tweet (interesting; one has the swollen minerals to say something in the first place but - like a dog poked with a stick - they then instantly retreat when it comes to standing tall by those words) **+** mr. sellars lean academic muscles now positively rippling in defence of ir product (ballard?) was having none of it saying ey knew *exactly* the kinds of things you were writing about ir on your awesome small utterly random / anonymous site // image here: apparently ballardian simon sellars reads robert what **+** it's about now that mr. sellars starts to sweat realising the increasing heady depths of the digital media hole ir's rapidly digging himself **+** after all that a few polite back-forth tweets rapidly ensue - basically mr. sellars rapidly trying to desperately downplay what ey just tweeted n' deleted. (just because we can no longer read it doesn't mean it's not still out here somewhere - it's called "internet widebanding" mr. sellars) **+** ey then states this very post is a direct ad hominem attack on ir and ir work (it isn't but it is directly indirectly-critical of academia generally) also asking what we care what a "minor accountant" and "tasteless drone" like ir says and thinks **+** you politely countered staying that some accusations of a.h are often just sour academic grapes; that it's far more an impersonal matter of exacting critique. (and yet arguably if a 'digital strategist working across web mobile and social currently employed at rmit university as senior digital analyst advising and training staff on digital strategy social media management mobile development mobile content and web content(tm) working closely with marketing and communications learning and teaching content and ux teams to provide a holistic approach to digital strategy' doesn't somehow at least remotely *represent* an inherently conservative strictly academic approach to (/the ideas of) one of the best writers to have ever lived - then who does?) quelle surprise - finally after several slightly embarrassingly awkward style tweets back mr. sellars then directly proceeds to 'follow' you on twitter pretending like someone's new found buddy. (of course you blocked them) (caption id="attachment_40909" align="aligncenter" width="656") simon sellars follows me desperate academic act of make-nice(/caption) let's try to get something straight about the facts as presented **+** nobody currently reads or knows of the existence of republic of bob **+** mr. simon sellars probably knows infinitely more than most about j. g. ballard **+** it's still uncertain whether mr. simon book sellars currently owns a world wide monopoly on ideas and theories re: the #ballardian **+** mr. simon sellars sure seems a common (c)ulturally sanctioned go-to when you need a handy academic-style intellectual quote about (eg.) jg. ballard **+** few remotely know mr. simon sellars and have zero hot rap beef about ir or ir (generally excellent) work; some did however purchase one of ir expensive books of collected ballard interviews which turned out to be rather dry (academic) **+** if anyone with ideas of ir own regarding ballard ir life ir amazing writing or ir utterly fantastic and mind-expanding ideas - ideas far outside the necessarily insular universe of wine-and-dine publishing self-congratulatory academic back slapping bland / toothless hollywooden adaptations of ir incredible works - then they are entirely free to develop and pursue those ideas without any rudely aggressive egotistical comeback from those who make lucrative careers off the name of famous dead authors (and therefore possibly view ir in a vastly limited manner as befits ir perceived social position) **+** indeed the creepy leech-like reverse appears true: in a tweet to a hot as-yet unknown amateur postmodern philosopher / writer and conceptual net artist mr. simon sellars readily admits to 'riffing off' fresh new ideas about ballard from others (caption id="attachment_40919" align="aligncenter" width="656") warning: simon sellars loves what you write. (doesn't pay for it though ;-)(/caption) summary analysis of such an exchange: whatever "j. g. ballard" is and potentially represents does not seem something merely to write about go to conferences to talk about become internet-famous for - nor any kind of reason to hang out with tom hiddleston - but rather a post scientific method of radical conceptual experimentalism to key psychological and philosophical aspects of modern undead life under global hyper-capitalism. ballard - kinda like a deleted tweet - is always out here thankfully out of anyone's polite control note: poor troy paiva's ears are probably burning but ey doesn't know why either **update patch** 2: simon sellars blocks you first ey infers you're a p***k riding off the intellectually heady ballardian coattails of others (hardly a healthy 'digital strategy' is it sim) - and five minutes later blocks you on twitter. stay classy mr. sellars - and thanks for confirming the premise of this post // image here: minor internets drama as shady sellars blocks you on twitter // republic of bob