University of London,

Goldsmiths
David John Beesley
MFA fine art
Part time year four
2016
Post Millennium
People
Contemporary Ballardian art

Word count: 6463

Post-Millennium
People
Contemporary Ballardian Art
David John Beesley

The plethora of accolades that are cast in J G Ballards shadow dwarf Ben
Nevis in British literary criticism and public admiration, the man was pious to
exploring the written form. Prophet like, Ballard has captured the British post
contemporary landscape like no other. His influential tentacles reach into
linguistic form and then morph and change the thing to create and shape
something fresher and provocative, Ballardian: dystopian, urban, wise and
psychologically devolutionary.
This explorative essay will look at post millennium artists and thinkers,
to examine how Ballard has shaped the darker side of artistic practices and
thinking about how do deal with the ever approaching near present.

In author John Greys book Straw Dogs, Thoughts on Humans and other

Animals, he cites Ballard as a literary example on exploring how humanity is

non-progressive. Grey states Progress is a fact, even so faith in progress is a

superstition (Grey, 2002, 155). Greys pessimistic book leaves a depressive
taste in the mouth, and now in 2016, the evidence seems apparent. An article
in the guardian states millennials who entered work during or after the
financial crisis (2008) will have had their pay squeezed even harder and could
have their prospects permanently blighted as a result.
(guardian.com/society/2016/jul/18/millennials-earn-8000-pounds-less-in-their20s-than-predecessors) The financial inequality in Britain has risen staggeringly
since the millennium and dystopian narratives are prevalent in our imaginations
periphery: global warming, over population, economic uncertainty, permanent
war, I hear people talking about this on the tube, in cafes, on the street. People
are becoming all too aware that some nightmarish vision of the future is very
probable - and profitable to a selected few.

Capitalism demands more, and sensibility tells us on a finite planet the modes
of capital function in disregard of the sensible. Where affluence is the rule the
chief threat is the loss of desire (Grey, 2002, 163). Our spheres of influence
are highly penetrated from the power structures that abuse capital. Post
Internet communication is allowing a more critical discourse of the
information that is presented by the mass media. The Arab Spring was
successful, in part, in bringing political change through the use of mass IT
communication. Corporate criticism flows on the pages of the Internet;
youtube video documentaries can offer us alternative educational insights, to
the one provided by the state and mass media.

Science fiction offers us a narrative in which our critical functions are

engaged in a neutral setting, which can play with historical and cultural
contexts. Set, as entertainment and leisure, we are free to critique the realities
presented to us.
The idea of non-progression in humans is that there is progression, in
terms of our knowledge and satisfying desires, though this is not universal!
This is Greys point, he is being facetious, he describes capitalism as an illusion
of progress, and the maintenance of that illusion is non-progressive.
Ballard is a realist in the form that his narratives hold speculation
underpinning the text. Ballard understands that our agency is real, that all
human action has consequences, and the more we move away from nature,
the less we care about our environment and each other, that we have become
generally secure with non-criticism, we distance ourselves more from that
which sustains us: the biosphere.

What I discovered, by chance, Science fiction, heres a literature

which has terrific vitality and is about change. I wasnt interested
in spaceships and time travel. This is a medium where I can put to
use my interest in social change
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbJ94hN1wBA)

Where the social and economic maelstrom meanders through the ebb and
flow of global histories. Ballard shows us what could happen in the recesses of
humanities mind and surfaces into the real. Millennium People, by Ballard,

shows a group of Middle class, well to do, activists of lecturers and doctors
bombing Londons cultural hubs, newly recruited David Markam asks one of
the activists what they do:
Im a fund-raiser for the Royal Academy. Its an easy job. All those
CEOs think art is good for their souls.
Not so?
It rots their brains. Tate Modern, the Royal Academy, the Hayward
theyre Walt Disney for the middle Classes
But you swallow your doubts?
Im going to resign. The work here is more important. We have to set
people free from all this culture and education. Richard says theyre just ways
of trapping the middle class and making them docile. (J G Ballard, 2003, 61)

Ballard understands that many of our psychological anxieties come from

social expectations. In Millennium People he has played with this as the middle
classes start to realise they are the buffer, which allows the upper classes to
stay on that effervescent veneer. Social mobility is a sham and the fictional
residents of Chelsea Marina start to terrorise London; bombing video Stores,
The National Film Theatre, The Tate Modern, all manor of assets of
established practices of culture that define and hold the class system where it
is: culture consumption as opium for the middle classes. The residents of
Chelsea Marina start to see them selves as the new proletariat (Ballard, 2003,
104) and that they are running the show for consumer capitalism (Ballard,
2003, 104). They recognise a system that is self-regulating, through civic

responsibility and private education. It is the middle classes that turn the cogs
and allow capitalism to flourish. They turn to terrorism to bring about change.
For me, Millennium People, which is one of Ballards later, alternative
present future novels, sits so close to the truth now, that they are
masturbating each other under the table: Conservative austerity measures, the
rise of Occupy, the richest 1%, cash for honours, the struggling middle class,
and for those at the very bottom, we have food banks to starve off death in
weekly instalments. Millennium People, for me has the strongest possibility of
actuality.

This essay is to explore philosophies of language and culture; as I believe we

are in a period of change: moving away from the postmodern, starting to
understand the wider realities of capital and power, from the personal values
psychologically, of those who hold power, to the ones that have the least
power. Capitalism has its psychological effects. That is to say, we have
greater understanding of the psychology of the individual and their relation to
the wider constructs of power in society. Dacher Keltners book, The Power

Paradox, discusses in great detail, how individuals can acquire power, and how
that power ultimately can turn into an addiction. Mark Fishers Capitalist

Realism describes eloquently how capitalism deals with mental health; it

capitalises on it through pharmaceuticals, the social structure isnt responsible.
The essay is to be a layered hybrid of artistic prose and critique, as we start
to understand ideologies that negate human happiness, we come to discuss
what is the actual, what is reality.

Art is a part of knowledge through its semiotics. Social discourse

around formalist exhaustion (Hild Van Gelder & Jan Baetens, 2004, 7) is
becoming more apparent with many artworks highly resembling other
artworks. But I do believe the undercurrent of social critique is increasing.
When form is no longer inventive, new forms become rare (bar technology).
Form gives way to semiotics, from shifts of experiencing something new, to
being specific in meaning. A form over time becomes clichd, and the clich
becomes a representation of meaning, they become signified.
At present, linguistics, semiotics and artistic exploration can investigate
vast bodies of ideologies, with their historical ramifications, in new and
interesting assemblages to help understand the realities at play in the world. I
believe a Ballardian approach in art, can help layer more meaning into trying to
understand our present reality. Prophesising the near future is easier as our
understandings and access to information increases; we are the post
millennium generation.

Performing the Arcane

Brian Catling: Performance artist, sculptor, writer and painter, allows his whims
and wills to create his art. One work in particular stood out for me as a work
of Ballardian dystopian performance - Quill 3.
One evening, I meandered into an evening of performance art at Raven
Row Gallery. There was a large group of people in a smallish space at the top

of the gallery. A large sheet of paper stood upright, tied with an elegant
ribbon that dominated the room. An assistant of the gallery entered the room
and untied the paper from its vertical standing position. The ribbon suggested
something pre Victorian, something middle class yet rough around the edges,
the beautiful remaining decor and style of the building adding to the sense of
time placement; we were going to witness something very pre internet,
something analogue, something caressing baroque. The paper was placed on
the floor. We had gotten there early and I found myself a good windowsill
perch to view the proceedings the crowd grew after a while a whirling
sound faintly engulfed the audience, then a strange claw type artifice entered
the room. Closely followed by and attached to the artist. Catling was wearing
a moody expression, negative and slightly sinister. The claw, leading, hovered
and shook as he slowly moved towards the window. Getting closer to me I
could see the end of the claw, the fingertips of the sculptured glove were
attached to small motors, whirling round, these mechanical superfast merrygo-round fingertips were leading the performance. They were grey in colour
with large white feathers protruding from the backs of the fingers, wires
leading into his large dark suit. The Quill was his hand. The Quill was
mechanical steam punk; it was an impotent writing implement, its spinning
sexually frustrated fingertips maintaining its aggressive frequency.
Brians demeanour is closed and thoughtful, he moves over to
the window and slowly lets the speeding fingertips contact the glass, the
rebound forces back his hand, but he attempts again slowly and frequently
He moves back and starts walking around some of the audience, eyeing them

up with the claw still leading the procedure. He moves round again and stands
aloft the large sheet of paper. His free hand moves and thumbles in one of the
outside pockets of his large suit jacket. A sprinkling of black liquid comes out
of some of the fingertips, joyfully playful with the audience, a smuttering of
ink is sprayed around then a huge splurge erupts out of the fingertips, Ink
ink is flung onto the paper and surrounding audience from the motorised
clawed fingertips. A Catherine wheel of ink engulfs the paper and audience
members. As the inky waterfall moves from a frothing rapid to a drizzle,
Catling bites the feathers with his teeth and pulls them off his hand and spits
them onto the giant ink sodden page. When all the feathers are removed he
skulks off slowly into the next room leaving a few over eager members of
the public wishing they hadnt been so eager for a good spot.

The work makes me think of a type of mythology with prose and meaning.
Quills were used from the 6th to the 19th Century; we have a strong romantic
and nostalgic association with them. For me, Quill 3 has a frustration with the
speed of technology and the concept of human progress. Its didactic in its
warning; an allegorical call to arms. Catling is testing our values, his aggressive
stare probes are we, the audience, driven by the technology at hand - in
this case the motorised driven fingertips. Are we led by technology? And of
course we are we all are. John Grey writes, Faith in progress is a
superstition () Science enables humans to satisfy their needs. It does nothing
to change them (John Gray, 2002, 155). The inky ejaculation from the
fingertips is a metaphorical cacophony of language, old language, the material

of the written word spilled and flung in every direction calling for thought of
action. The machine is broken. Look how it couldnt contain language look
to the pool of ink of gazillions of written voices never to be heard. Catlings
work is a warning to the idea of human progression through technology. This
is why he rips off the feathered quills from his motorised claw at the end with
his teeth, and spits them into the inky mess. In evolutionary prehistory,
consciousness emerged as a side effect of language. Today it is a by-product
of the media (John Gray, 2002, 171). Catling spits out the old devices of
language into the mechanisms of language - a Luddite act. As Neo Liberal
ideology commodifies resources and utilities, our voices have little effect on
the minds of those who control the strings, the power elite the spilled ink is
political agency prematurely ejaculated. These are the unformed powerless
words of the 99%.
Catling is well aware of Ballard, and hes aware of our political agency.
Hes playing linguistically with linguistics. The aesthetics of the work
incorporates the written, but the written is gobbledygook. The Simulacrum a
layered stratified image of reality, that is in itself an image of reality, and the
semiotics at play blend to show a lack of trust in humanity and language. An
ontological rhetoric, that meaning, just like language here, is scrambled, but
found within the individual, the viewer. The ink sodden page, the thing left, is
the thing of our cultural production, an overload of information of history.

I resonate with philosophies put forward by Critical Realists, the theories of

Critical Realism envelope this work for me, but the flap is not licked shut, the

work itself is not Critical Realist in aesthetics, it is Postmodern in this sense, or

perhaps here we should invest in the term Mark Fisher prefers, Capitalist
Realist. It is part of the language of postmodernity, but of the vernacular of
being critical of social reality; it is parole (a type of speech), it is colloquial of
social disappointment in its deliverance and its intention. The work is a hybrid
of Postmodernism in its indirectness, and Critical Realist in that meaning is
fused within this work; the fallacy hinted at, the human ego.
Dr Timothy Rutzou describes Critical Realism as a broad church of
ideas and thinking, there are common features, which define the philosophy,
in that of resemblances, like a family (youtube.com/watch?v=U5TIyheQk7c),
characteristics that resonate whilst thinking also seeks its own ideas within the
discourse.
My research into Critical Realism has found two disciplines across the
arts and philosophy, which appear completely unknown to each other: Critical
realism does not poses this (wider philosophical) relationship with either art or
culture. (Jose/Potter, 2001, 181) however, it does! In the arts, the focus has
been around older understandings of the term realism in aesthetic relations
from Lukacs (who coined the term) literary criticisms, to painting and
photography with figurative social criticism, and moving towards a more
theoretical proposition where Critical Realism is seen as a research method
(Gelder, 2006, 121) looking for historical consistency to uphold beliefs in
aesthetical terms.
Within philosophy, the term springs out of reactions against Positivism
in the 1970s and 8os in the social sciences. The natural sciences were seen as

the gospel pinnacle to all knowledge, refuting metaphysics and disregarding

effects that could be recorded outside of the laboratory. Critical Realisms
foundational principals are philosophical under-labouring, clarifying logic and
analysing language. This happens in two philosophical distinctions of ontology
and epistemology. Ontological realism states: we come to knowledge of the
world, even though that knowledge may be partial. Epistemic relativism works
in balance with ontological realism and states all knowledge must be
considered transient and fallible () beliefs are socially, historically and
linguistically constructed () Our representations are particular perspectives.
(youtube.com/watch?v=U5TIyheQk7c).
In linguistics, this works alongside Derridas thinking in poststructuralist
chain of signification; signifiers being an endless stream of signifiers;
meanings can be generated from objective and subjective reasoning.
Language is inherent in this work. This, for me, resonates Catlings work as
Critical Realist visual prose; he offers and contends knowledge of the machine
being the hope of the future, he is disrespectful and angry at the speed of
technology and the impotency of language around this discourse.

Capital Commotions

In Ballards short stories, he creates worlds with slightly unrecognisable

features; peoples names are odd, recognisable, but misplaced, there are
buildings with strange names and purposes, which hint at something we are
aware of, futuristic but in a differing universe, it requires a little thought

digging and acts linguistically ambiguous. Theyre strange glimpses of parallel

times, bleak and sparse.

In February of 2016, I attended an evening of sound art performances by

Ingrid Plum. Based around three of Ballards short stories, Plum created three
differing sound pieces in collaboration with another musician/sound artist for
each piece. The evening was marked by a mise-en-scene of dystopian sound,
pierced through with vocal and tribal mutterings.
One piece, based on the short story The Sound Sweep, which started
as they all did, with a slow meandering of futuristic electronic synth relays.
Heavy breathing started to appear. Familiar with the story, I started to imagine
the narrative folding along with this new sound track. Was the heavy breathing
Mangon; the mute protagonist discovering his voice; or his obsession with
Madam Gioconda; the cocaine and whisky devouring deva who hasnt
performed in twenty years? Whistling sounds reverbing with static remind me
of vocal chords not yet used properly, rough, harsh and crushed? This could
be either character now ambient background sounds refer to the ambient
non-sound of ultrasonic sound, which is the backbone of the narrative:
Ultrasonic music, employing a vastly greater range in octaves, chords and
chromatic scales than are audible by the human ear (Ballard, 1960, 149) is this
the sound of that non-sound? The sound of the zeitgeist put forward by
Ballard in this short story? Postmodern rumblings of dystopian darkness the
sounds hush down and rebuild slowly, a second section moves into position

Static; both harsh and soft fills the void, slight angular guitar sounds;
the heavy static reminds me of radio waves on my old Roberts portable world
service radio. In Ballards writing, he is still using analogue technology in this
story; the shift in digital technology could never have been imagined in the
1960s, and it fits well within Plums work. Intermittent drum beats start to
penetrate through it perpetrates the static Something slightly tribal is felt,
half heard in the distance. Then, over time, increases in duration as does the
static, as the sound of a rough voice hems in, but it too might be more
electronic screeches and sounds no, definitely a voice, the sound of
someone singing scales. A panning of electric sound distorts the sound scape;
it fades outand leads us into the third section
The sound of wind and heavy breathing lightly fill the void with verbal
mutterings, this could be Mangon again, slight clicking then a clear
distorted voice is heard muttering with low frequency animal squeals,
repeating: a dog or wolf cub in distress a low fade out, with lightly sprinkled
low distortions lead us to the end of the piece, no crescendo just fading
away

Plums work is ambiguously determinate. It rings of postmodernity, and its

sound is dark. Theres a haunting quality to these works. Again, as with
Catlings work, they function within the zeitgeist of the simulacrum of
Postmodernity; the signification of the work is dark and moribund. The
ambiguities that are present in the work point at frustration, and we cant
dispense of placing the work without the wider social content of our Post

Millennium period; we are traversing of the realms of capitol, its murky and
we need large wading trousers, the hyperreal has faded away with these
works the hype is lost. It is pure dystopia. The sounds and fizzles represent
the lack of clarity of the present; fear penetrates the work and the human is
something ancient, history as a plethora of opposing human ideologies, needs
and acquisitions that are never met.

For me, both the works I presented so far, chime with Mark fishers Capitalist

Realism. The widespread sense that not only is Capitalism the only viable
political and economic system, but also that it is now impossible to imagine a
coherent alternative to it. (Mark Fisher, 2009, 2) The power of capitalist
realism derives in part from the way that capitalism subsumes and consumes
all previous history: one of its systems of equivalence which can assign all
cultural objects, whether they are religious iconography, pornography, or Das
Kapital, a monetary value (Mark Fisher, 2009,4). I believe these works are
artistic representation of the fear to Capitalist Realism. They are cultural
signifiers of rejection and discontent of the present. They show and adhere to
John Greys ideas of Non-Progress. They both share the same placard, which
reads: the end of history is nigh.
In linguistics, the intention of the author (or in this case musician) has
been contended as unimportant to the overall meaning within a work. A
Critical Realist stance finds this a non-commonsensical stance to take if one is
looking to explore the Ontological realism within a work. If we look to the
ontology of a work of fiction, then the authors intention, interlaces throughout

the whole process. The author, E.D. Hirsch's, Validity in Interpretation,

celebrates the author as an important part of the works meaning. My point
may be summarised in the paradox in textual interpretation requires explicit
reference to the speakers subjectivity (Hirch, 1967, 237). Meaning can be
found in the intention of the author, as well as the readers thoughts, and the
text itself; meaning is spread geographically through interpretation of the
authors intention, the text itself and the criticisms it receives, like Deleuze and
Guattaris Rhizome theory, we must accept that all the meanings at our
disposal must considered for a realist evaluation of the work, and the
possibility of being disposed of. These stratified interpretations are indebted
to the reality of the work as they are all part and parcel of its conception and
reception, In this case, Plums acolyte status to Ballard.
Interestingly, interviewing Plum, she did not regard the work as
Ballardian: I think rather than follow the vision of Ballard's work I am perhaps
part of the landscape around it, I on the other hand disagree, this of course
has to be taken at face value as part of the Ontological realism of the work,
including Plums perception of the term Ballardian.

This future present life

Helen Knowles work, The Trial of Superdebthunterbot, moves us from the

terrain of Ballardian artistic ambiguity to a fully constructed narrative. The

interactive performance work, turned artists film, plays with speculation of

how an audience, or public, perceives how an algorithm could be held
accountable for manslaughter. Can an algorithm be culpable?
The work takes a fictional account of a debt collecting company who
buys the Governments student loan book. They sets to task an algorithm to
ensure there are fewer defaulters; as the algorithm searches for work the
graduates can apply for. The company receives payments when students
accept the jobs offered to them, as well as working to pay off the loan they
inherited. The work offered to them is of all varieties and includes work that
could be described as risky. Two students die due to finding work in
unregulated medical trials.
The trial goes ahead, with artist, Daniel Dressels home made,
transparently cased computer, as the host for the algorithm on the dock. A
pre agreed audience is brought in as the jury, and the trial proceeds. The
prosecution and defence, drafted by real lawyers, are played out, and the
judge, played by actor Mark Frost, invites the jury to come to a verdict. The
jury, in real time, debate the evidence presented, and in every case the
performance, as well as the filmed takes, always finds the algorithm not guilty.

The work acts in a dystopian fashion, referencing artificial intelligences

creeping role in society. Ones that unsettle us, leave us feeling rather
perplexed at the possibilities that could endure in a futuristic science fiction
scenario. This work could be straight out of a Ballardian short story, a future
present critique, that acts directly, pointing to ambiguities around specific

topics in society, ones which are undeveloped and need refining. A refining
that can only happen with future developments in its field of production, and
its sociological interactivity. The art acts as narrative with a playful element,
where an audience is allowed interaction with the process.
This work is a hybrid in narrative technique; here an audience
determines the ending. I had books like this as a child, and to see this work
reminds me of a type of LARP (Live Action Role Play). An audience is
encouraged to process the information and make moral judgment to the
presented dilemma, which falls around potential real world conflicts. This is
socially engaged art.
As mentioned, the audience always finds the algorithm not guilty: one
case being the students had the choice not to accept the job in the first place,
the most common being, that it is actually the coder of the algorithms who is
responsible. Audience members who wanted to find the algorithm guilty, felt
that they wanted to set precedence, so that in the future, coders would be
more carful in their coding. The jury was never conclusive its decision.
The work brings on notions of where an algorithms potential lie in
other aspects of a future society? Driving cars may be on the horizon, could
AI medical procedures also come into affect? The work does what good art
should, be full of meaning and ask questions.

Simulacra Slippage

Baudrillard states in his essay on Ballards Crash: This is what distinguishes

Crash from all science fiction or almost all, which most of the time still
revolves around the old couple function/dysfunction, which it projects in the
future along the same lines of force and the same finalities that are those of
the normal universe. There fiction surpasses reality (or the opposite), but
according to the same rules of the game. In Crash, no more fiction or reality,
it is hyperreality that abolishes both. Not even a critical regression is possible.
This mutating and commutating world of simulation and death, this violently
sexed world, but one without desire, full of violated and violent bodies, as if
neutralized, this chromatic world and metallic intensity, but one void of
sensuality, hypertechnology without finality - is it good or bad? We will never
know. It is simply fascinating, though this fascination does not imply a value
judgment. There lies the miracle of Crash. Nowhere does this moral gaze
surface. (Baudrillard, 1981, 116)
My thinking leads to the value judgment Ballard was aiming for in the
work of Crash, is that we never come to not be disturbed by this work of
fiction. This work is Ballard realist provocateur. He wants an audience to feel
sickened for the brutality laden within the imagery of words Crash is
cautionary (Ballard, 1995, Crash Intro). The moral gaze has not shifted from
humanity, and that our agency for finding these ideas disturbing lays in his zeal
for social concerns. This is humanity in non-progression; at its most utopian.
Non-progress doesnt have to be associated with negative connotations. The
realisation of non-progress, allows us to confirm ideological agencies within
the crises, which underpin our future present, and what it is to be Ballardian.

An ideology of utopia has as much to do with looking backwards as looking

forwards.
The linguistic forms used are a tool, an experimental tool: one that
broke many conventions of writing, and propelled it into the western literary
cannon. A tool, I would also argue that was as much to do with Ballards
healing process after his wifes passing, as it was an experiment in writing, as
well as his penance for an engagement in social change. An ideological stance,
held steadfast in a pace of experimenting in literary form. Ideological
concerns stacked on top of each other: experimental writing, social critique
and personal catharsis. Perhaps Ballard conceived this story while driving back
to England from Spain, crying at the steering wheel - even the main character
shares his name - perhaps thoughts of crashing the car roamed his mind, as
his body and brain tried to deal with the fact of his wifes passing. The
language of sexual violence has a harsh prose; it is cold and methodical. His
daughter describes never being allowed to talk about her mothers passing at
home or with her father. This type of silence seems cruel now in our age of
counselling. Which also seems strange for someone, who at one point wanted
to be a psychiatrist?

Crash, is more than a testament to Baudrillards simulacra. I believe

Ballards intention, and let us not forget Baudrillard is using Ballards writing to
uphold his own dialectic. Where Ballard has written what he imagines is a
warning, Baudrillard accepts it as an account of the world as it is. (Mike Gane,
1991,19). Ideology of agency, through linguistic uses of style and form had
not been made like this before. I believe Ideology through intention resonates

and arranges forms. I have already discussed the authors intention as an

intimate part of the Ontological reality of a work. Crash is also an allegory!
Ballard states in an interview It absolutely shattered me (his wifes death), it
probably changed everything () it took me a long time to accommodate
that, I started writing a series of strange short fictions, that collected as The
Atrocity Exhibition (youtube.com/watch?v=MNNuaqguoYM), which the
original Crash is part of. Crash emerged, in part, as a purging of turmoil.
Ballard also states the writers role, his authority and license to act,
have changed radically. I feel that, in a sense, the writer knows nothing any
longer. He has no moral stance. He offers the reader the content of his own
head. (Ballard, 1995, Crash into) Here Ballard accepts Baudrillards view, to a
point, Ballard is engaging in an Ontological realist view of linguistics, accepting
differing components make up the reality.

Baudrillard writes of science fiction: The first category (Simulacra and

science fiction) belongs the imaginary of the Utopia. To the second
corresponds science fiction, strictly speaking. To the third corresponds - is
there an imaginary that might correspond to this order? The most likely
answer is that the good old imaginary of science fiction is dead and that
something else is in the process of emerging (not only in fiction but in theory
as well). The same wavering and indeterminate fate puts an end to science
fiction - but also to theory, as specific genres. (Baudrillard, 1981, 118)
I think Baudrillard is right. At a Post Millennium spike in time, our
simulacrum is becoming clearer, the political ideological discourse of neo-

liberalism is being contended. Works of art and writing, of the future present,
will have to examine aspects of: time, histories (as in global histories),
perception, ideology, psychology and philosophy to grasp at what is the real.
These personal values scope and shape our social maps, the map is not the
actual territory, but these works can include both. A multilayering of these can
get close to Baudrillards third correspondence of Simulacra and science
fiction. A synthetic, and non-synthetic, assemblage of form and ideology, and
in our current global social climate, Ballardian, is a large part of that jigsaw.

Beyond Reality which way to inner space?

Ballard is a social critic by way of stirring up psychological perversions and

forecasting possibilities psychogeographically. He presents meaning by way
of scrutiny at a distance. His manifesto on Science Fiction critiqued spaceships
and lazer guns and focused on shifting and hybrid imaginative geographies
(Baxter 2008,4).
I will present two modes of thinking that allow us to contemplate our
future present, within contemporary philosophy; and importantly focus on
positivity, on what could be an ideology, or ideologies, to propel what comes
after Postmodernism?

The first I will discuss is Nicolas Bourraiuds ideas of Altomodernism, a

concept he coined to think beyond Postmodernism. He sees this as forms of
art that can be taken as an archipelago (Bourriaud, 2009,1) of ideas, each one
bridging associations of differing forms and concepts that construct
something new, utilising global histories, appropriation and assemblage, as a
type of narrative, to go beyond: global commodification, insipient nationalism
and post colonial doctrine. All concepts and forms are available for use, a kind
of rhizome, which can also teleport ideas through history to the present.
Altermodernism can be defined as that moment when it became possible for
us to produce something that made sense starting from an assumed
heterochrony, that is, from a vision of human history as constituted or multiple
temporalities, disdaining the nostalgia for the avant-garde and indeed for any
era a positive vision of chaos and complexity. It is neither a petrified kind of
time advancing in loops (postmodernism) nor a linear vision of history
(modernism) but a positive experience of disorientation through an art-form
exploring all dimensions of the present, tracing lines of all directions of time
and space. The artist turns cultural nomad. (Bourriaud, 2009, 3)
Humans have always used storytelling as a way of understanding their
environment and perception of reality, especially as didactic usage.
Contemporary parables, in essence, may be a good way to discuss our
present agency? Bourraid mentions To understand the present means
carrying out a kind of rough-and-ready archaeological investigation of world
culture (Bourriaud, 2009, 5)

Bourraiuds thinking here, is ideologically constructively encouraging,

perhaps nave, but non the less - optimistic. Bourraiuds want to go beyond
postmodernism is shared by many on the intellectual left. To move from a
global perspective where power is shifted from monetary concerns to care is
utopian in desire.
David Cunningham writes: in fact, Altermodernism is a term Bourraiud
has been touting around for a while. Its thus hard not to believe that the
invitation to curate the fourth Tate triennial provided, more than anything else,
a perfect opportunity for marketing the idea itself (...) one of the most
striking aspects of the exhibition was its very evident imbalance between the
implicit scale of the theoretical hypothesis ventured and any identifiable
curational program running through the exhibition itself () the branding is
inevitably somewhat stronger than the product it has to sell (Cunningham,
2010, 124). Bourraiuds romantic anti capitalism (Cunningham, 2010, 127)
stance is at its best a lever, in a series of levers, to add to a discourse of
hopefulness, but shows in its process the subsuming qualities postmodernism
is fused with capital. His thinking is tarnished with the prowess of financial
gain, (though, we will not be aware of conditions placed upon him to create
the exhibition in its finality). Theory has been overshadowed by the prevalence
of the bookshop. Altermodernism in itself may act as a postmodern parable of
capital. Cunningham mentions, Bourriadue makes a good sound bite
(Cunningham, 2010, 123), but that doesnt take away the seriousness of his
intentions or the knowledge the language itself refutes and promotes.

Altermodernism must be considered in linguistic terminology usage for

moving away from Postmodernism.

The term I find more accurate to critique postmodernism is that of Roy

Bhaskars Critical Realism. Firstly, it takes us somewhere linguistically fresh,
away from associations with modernism, and sets up a signifier of historical
discography within critical thinking: science, social science, philosophy,
politics, global histories and metaphysics are all opened up to debate with
their historical ramifications subordinate to the ontology of the present. An
abundance of territories the arts can plunder. Bhaskar states the underlying
principals which constitute critical realism is philosophical underlabouring
(youtube.com/watch?v=8YGHZPg-19k) questioning, how our present ontology
and epistemology function. Critical Realism theorises that our knowledge of
the world differs from our experience of the world, reality is stratified, by
many differing layers, and some of these layers are unobservable by humans,
therefor to get an overall understanding of reality, we must also be
knowledgeable about these unobservable conditions and how they create
effects in the prevailing stratified layers of reality. Bhaskers last foray into
Critical Realism, was its metaphysical state, where he researched and
promoted modes of spirituality, meditation and religious practices that aim to
put humans in ulterior states, with the aim of giving humans a more rounded,
holistic view of reality, by connecting with and critiquing ones own ego and its
affects in wider society. Bhaskars theory of MetaReality is fascinating, heavily
laden with his own terminology to describe what essentially is a modern social

scientific analogy of Buddhism. Bhaskars logic linguistically is possibly fallible;

breaking down the language is very time consuming and difficult. Its
accessibility has helped with interviews and talks he gave on youtube. This is
research I want to continue!
In the book After Postmodernism an introduction to Critical Realism,
Gary Potter argues for linguistic criticism, that literary criticism, is like that of
science Science and art have the same objectives as knowledge () these
knowledges are in a different form and produced through different means
() the particular methodology of literary criticism functions just as any other
social science. The production of historical, psychological or sociological
knowledges is attempted (Potter, 2001, 195). This can be analysed and
through analysis more knowledge is produced from the original text. This is
the practice I have utilised on the above art works I have discussed.
Science fiction, as in the Ballardian form, utilises or at the least imparts
form and narrative structures used to propel critique; these are engendered
with knowledge and presented as entertainment. Bourriaud scrambles for a
fresher art, which deals a permanent blow to postmodern principals. In his
book the Exform, he cites: Today, the writing of history and psychoanalysis
meet up, via this notion of belatedness, in the field of art. The past not only
reactivated by the present; the very nature of necessity (which is supposed
to direct it) depends on the vagaries of the present. The work of art offers not
just formal context. It practices genealogy. (Bourriaud, 2016, 97).
Bourriaud, for me, is looking for something surmounting utopian
ideology in his art. Critical Realism should be considered as new grounds for

creating contemporary art. They fit Bourriauds list of speculative demands only adding the metaphysical to the list. The spiritual (understanding how ones
actions have wider effects in the world) applied to science fiction takes
Ballardian concepts, and something akin to that which Baudrillard speculated
about in his third level of science fiction, a new level, a level closer to reality,
because they traverse understanding of the present and speculate on possible
greater understandings of our reality, which is exactly what Bhaskar pushes
for in his ideas of Critical Realism. Inge Henneman speculates on what a
Critical Realistic art could be at the closing conference of Critical Realism at
STUK art centre 2005, So, when it comes to move people, which is the aim of
critical realism for me, then you also need poetry, metaphors, fiction,
imagination and all kinds of frames (Henneman, 2006, 123). Henneman, I
believe is correct in theorising assemblage theory to broker new forms to
describe our present reality, an incorporation of linguistics and semiotics,
blended with historical referencing to understand the real, and in our present
predicament of agency, Ballardian is I believe a key part within that discourse,
add spirituality into the mix, and you promote ways to tackle the problems of
power and the ego.

Bibliography
Texts:
J G Ballard, 2003: Millennium People, Flamingo
J G Ballard, 1973: Crash, Fourth Estate

J G Ballard, 2001: The Complete Short Stories, Volume 1, Fourth Estate

John Grey, 2002: Straw Dogs, Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals,
Granta
Mark Fisher, 2009: Capitalist Realism, Zero Books
Dacher Keltner, 2016: The Power Paradox, Penguin
Candice Black (editor), 2013, Terminal Atrocity Zone, Sun Vision Press
Jeanette Baxter (editor), 2008: J G Ballard, Contemporary Critical
Perspectives, Continuum
John Baxter, 2011: The life of J G Ballard, The Inner Man, Weidenfeld &
Nicolson
Roland Barthes, 1957: Mythologies, Vintage
Jean Baudrillard, 1981: Simulacra and simulation, Michigan
Jean Baudrillard, 1983: Simulations, Semiotext(e)
Mike Gane, 1991: Baudrillards Bestiary, Baudrillard and Culture, Routledge
Naill Lucy, 2004: A Derrida Dictionary, Blackwell
Nicolas Bourriaud, 2009: Altomodernism, Tate Publishing (manifesto)
David Cunningham, 2010: Returns of the Modern, Journal of Visual Culture,
April 2010, Volume 9
Nicolas Bourriaud, 2016: The ExForm, Verso Futures
E D Hirsch, 1967: Validity in Interpretation, Yale University Press
Jan Baetens & Hilde Van Gelder, 2006: Critical Realism in Contemporary Art
Around Allan Sekulas Photography, Leuven University Press
Brandon Taylor (essay), 1987: Critical Realism, Britain in the 1980s through
the work of 28 Artists, Chas Goater & Son Ltd
Jose Lopez & Garry Potter, 2001: After Postmodernism, An Introduction to
Critical Realism, The Athlone Press

Roy Bhaskar, 2002: The Philosophy of MetaReality, Creativity, Love and

Freedom, Routledge

Web pages:
http://eprints.lib.hokudai.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2115/33579/1/40(1)_PL161180.pdf accessed 10/8/2016
(Teruhiko Nagao, 1991: On Authorial Intention, E D Hirschs Validity in
Interpretation revisited, unknown)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5TIyheQk7c accessed 25/7/2016
(Critical Realism Webinar)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNNuaqguoYM accessed 30/7/2016
(G J Ballard Interview)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YGHZPg-19k accessed 6/5/2013
(Roy Bhaskar Interview)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGCiqqT9uo8 accessed 12/8/2016
(Derrida Lecture)
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/jul/18/millennials-earn-8000-poundsless-in-their-20s-than-predecessors accessed 4/8/2016
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/jun/20/jg-ballard-daughtermother-couldnt-mention accessed 6/8/2016