Since his death in 2009, J. G. Ballard has increasingly been recognised as one of the most original and prescient writers of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. From early childhood in China during the Second World War to cartographer of modern Britain, his topics range from ecological catastrophe, the effects of technology, psychopathology, urban decay, war, and elitist criminality. His writing is always interested in the future and what might become of the human species.

This workshop-conference will investigate the ways in which the speculative fiction of Ballard has shaped discourses, practices and narratives on space, time, the arts, and the built environment. It is an opportunity to explore diverse aspects of Ballard’s work, including his interest in physical and psychological zones of transit, modern consumerism and post-cultural spaces. We will be considering the importance of the visual arts, literary ephemera, and the media on his fiction, which was strongly influenced by surrealism and collage techniques. A broad range of Ballard’s work will be discussed, from his short stories to longer novels.

Papers include:

• Ballard’s Non-places of Modernity
• Collective memory, Space and Mediation
• Romanticism, Modernism and the History of the Future
• Desire, Class and Consumer Millenarianism
• Ballard's Invisible Literatures
• Inner Space and Geometries of the Imagination

This conference is organised by Dr Richard Brown, Elizabeth Stainforth and Chris Duffy (University of Leeds). Contact: ballardspaceandtime@gmail.com