Landscape, Literature, Psychogeography, Uncategorized

Memory and Disintegration in the work of W.G. Sebald and The Caretaker

This paper was delivered at the Resonant Edge Hauntology Symposium on the 15/06/2017. Full interviews with Grant Gee and James Leyland Kirby will be published later this summer. My talk today is about two specific forms: the writing of W.G. Sebald and the musical work of The Caretaker.  My aim is to show the links between the two, with reference to ideas of Hauntology but … Continue reading Memory and Disintegration in the work of W.G. Sebald and The Caretaker

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Art, Landscape, Uncategorized

Responses: Paul Nash’s Monster Field

As World War Two loomed, Paul Nash’s obsessions leaned towards more esoteric forms.  The landscape became a fantastical entity, the realm of old magic that had already been of much interest to the artist, but one that gradually heightened as reality darkened around him once more.  He moved more to photography as a medium in itself, as well as to take reference material for his … Continue reading Responses: Paul Nash’s Monster Field

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Landscape, Literature, Psychogeography, Uncategorized

Wanders: Longplayer (New Cross to Trinity Buoy Wharf)

“Witness, for instance, the establishment of settled ‘alternative’ or ‘independent’ cultural zones, which endlessly repeat older gestures of rebellion and contestation as if for the first time.” – Mark Fisher The Longplayer walk ghosts a route to be taken on the 21st of June for a day long walked festival of arts in celebration of Jem Finer’s work. Information on the Longplayer event, featuring an … Continue reading Wanders: Longplayer (New Cross to Trinity Buoy Wharf)

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Film, Literature, Uncategorized

The Frozen Time Of Alain Robbe-Grillet

It was a rather surreal feeling to find that, whilst watching this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in a flat in France, the work of writer and filmmaker, Alain Robbe-Grillet, continually kept coming to mind.  At first I failed to understand what exactly it was that was bringing his typical visual and narrative ploy of human beings frozen, in front of my mind’s eye.  I soon … Continue reading The Frozen Time Of Alain Robbe-Grillet

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Art, Literature, Uncategorized

Responses: Virginia Woolf (1912) – Vanessa Bell

A few months back, I visited the retrospective of Vanessa Bell’s paintings at Dulwich Picture Gallery.  The exhibition is still ongoing and an essential visit for anyone with a passion for those strange groups of English rebels that seemed to flourish in the arts around the Fin de siècle.  It confirmed for me Bell’s position as one of the most underrated artists from that period, … Continue reading Responses: Virginia Woolf (1912) – Vanessa Bell

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Film, Folk Horror, Landscape, Television, Uncategorized

Folk Horror: Hours Dreadful and Things Strange

At the time of writing this, my book on Folk Horror is a few weeks away from being printed.  By the time you read this, however, it should be available to buy.  I’ve written about the detail of the book earlier when it was due to be published late last year.  However, I wanted to get a few words down again now that it is … Continue reading Folk Horror: Hours Dreadful and Things Strange

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Literature, Psychogeography, Uncategorized

Wanders: Goethe Dies (Strasbourg)

It came with a great sense of relief that, on the 29th of March, I had a plane to catch.  This plane that I was to catch on the afternoon of the 29th was heading to Strasbourg; a visit to ma chérie and an escape from the 29th of March or what the 29th of March now represented which was everything contrary to reason.  Exactly … Continue reading Wanders: Goethe Dies (Strasbourg)

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Film, Psychogeography

The Breeze in the Trees

If asked to choose a particular sound that defined London in cinema, it would not be the bustling noise of traffic or an iconic piece of soundtrack music. It would, in fact, be the very simple but endlessly mysterious sound of the wind rustling through the trees in Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blowup (1966). Having visited all of the locations of the film last summer for the British Film … Continue reading The Breeze in the Trees

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Film, Literature, Psychogeography, Television, Uncategorized

Doomwatch, J.G. Ballard and High-Rise

Having recently finished all of the remaining episodes of the early 1970s BBC series, Doomwatch, I had the strange feeling that I had slipped into a parallel world; one where the BBC had worked closely with the writer, J.G. Ballard, to make a series that addressed his themes.  Though the series largely resembles Ballard’s earlier novels with their constant post-civilisation eco-disasters similar to The Drowned World … Continue reading Doomwatch, J.G. Ballard and High-Rise

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