Australian Horror One The Lost Soldier to an Empire of Bone and Ash Under the unsparing glare of a white-hot sky, the horror does not lurk in the shadows—it bakes into the earth's surface itself. This image presents Australian Gothic Horror as a visceral, speculative dread, where the landscape is not merely hostile, but an active, devouring force that refuses to let the past rot in peace. The horror is elemental and corporeal: human history grafted directly into ancient geology. The Lost Soldier's flesh has not decayed; it has calcified into red earth, oxidized stone, and petrified khaki cotton. It has accepted the intrusion of human technology—corroded copper telegraph wire coiled into sinew, thick glass insulators staring blindly like unblinking eyes—suggesting a brutal, botched metamorphosis. It has become the physical manifestation of an unspoken colonial and wartime trauma, where the forgotten dead are subsumed, weaponized, and regurgitated by the country they sought to ta...
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JJFBbennett travels to Taiwan
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JJFBbennett travels to Taiwan
Navigating the Metamodern City: Reflections from Taiwan
What happens when ancient culture, vertical hyper-modernity, and raw street-level life collide through a traveller's lens?
In my short video series exploring Taiwan—from the rain-slicked avenues of Taipei to the summit of Taipei 101 and the quiet contemplation of Liberty Square—travel becomes more than just sightseeing. It becomes an inquiry into metamodernism, architecture, art, and the everyday rituals that anchor our lives.
Get ready for some serious wanderlust! I'm diving into JJFBbennett's incredible adventures as he explored Taiwan's stunning islands. Follow along on a journey that captures everything from Taipei's bustling energy to the historic elegance of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial.
Experience the trip through a vibrant travel photo library and an exciting video playlist that brings the entire destination to life. It’s an unforgettable look at Taiwan that will have you planning your own getaway in no time.
1. Reaching for the Sky: Why Do We Climb Towers?
From the heights of Taipei 101, the sprawling urban basin unfolds beneath a shifting sky. Why do human beings feel an innate compulsion to build and ascend these vertical monuments?
Climbing high above the metropolis isn’t just about the panoramic vista—it is an exercise in perspective. From hundreds of meters in the air, the city's frenetic pulse becomes an abstract circuit board of light, movement, and silence. It exposes the tension between technological ambition and our human scale.
2. Rain, Art, and Street Aesthetics
Taipei has a distinct atmospheric poetry when the weather turns. The rain transforms concrete, neon signage, and alleyway surfaces into reflective canvases.
Wandering through the city's arty enclaves and quieter quarters reveals how modern Taiwanese culture embraces both heritage and spontaneous contemporary expression. Between sacred temple altars and modernist street installations, the city constantly negotiates the sacred and the everyday.
3. Liberty, Space, and Memory
Taking the train to **Liberty Square** brings you face-to-face with the architecture of civic identity and history. Grand plazas and monumental gates do more than frame photos—they hold space for cultural memory, democratic expression, and quiet reflection amidst a bustling modern capital.
4. Grounded in the Senses: Markets & Bowls
No philosophical exploration is complete without grounding yourself in the sensory fabric of the city:
Linjiang Night Market: A rush of steam, sizzling grills, sweet aromas, and the electric energy of street life.
The Ritual of a Warm Bowl: Sitting down for vegetarian ramen before heading into towering skyscraper districts offers a grounded moment of nourishment and pause before taking in the city's monumental scale.
Watch the Playlist
Catch all the visual vignettes, philosophical shorts, and street walks in the full playlist:
What resonates most with you when exploring a new city—the panoramic heights, the quiet artistic corners, or the midnight street food walks? Let’s connect in the comments.
The Highway and the Lost Soldier The midday sun around Adelaide River does something violent to the bitumen. At forty-five degrees, the Stuart Highway softens like melting fat; it turns into a black mirror, rippling with an unnatural, liquid glare that pools over every low rise. That is where it waits. He is always trudging south, away from life and deeper into the blistering furnace, his boots making no sound against the tar. The Highway and Lost Soldier Standing From two hundred yards out, he resembles a stranded traveler you’d pull over to save. He wears sun-bleached, disintegrating drill cotton that matches the bone-white dust of the termite country, his head angled down at an impossible, broken angle against the glare. No broad-brim hat. No swag. No water bottle. Just stiff, unnatural limbs jerking with every stride. “Driver... look at his face. We need to stop—why won't he turn around?” He is no lost tourist. Could he be the linesman from the Overland Telegraph days who tore ...
The Terminal Horizon Tourist Bus Discovering the Terminal Horizon The Long Highway Out here, the world ends not in silence, but in fire. The asphalt bleeds into cracked red earth, stretching toward a bruised horizon where the sky refuses to cool. Behind the glass, you drive chasing ghosts through a desert that forgot rain a lifetime ago. Beneath the Scorch Every road leads deeper into the furnace. Even below the surface, the rock fissures and weeps, hot steam rising through subterranean fractures where molten veins pulse in the dark, feeding an ancient, unforgiving heat. Broken Arteries What we built couldn’t hold. Rails twist into the dunes, swallowed by iron sand and wind. Bridges split down the seam, concrete splintered into raw bone, tangled rebar, and dying wires crackling into the smoke. The machines stopped; the wasteland stayed. The Last Horizon And when the road finally runs out, there is only the ash, the petrified stumps, and the quiet. You are a lone figure sitting in...
Incandescent - Ode to the Endless Scrub Beneath the vault of fallen light Where red dirt cools to iron stone The ancient country meets the night Unyielding, patient, and alone Cracked earth yields to twisted root To hardy bark and spinifex Where time leaves neither mark nor foot Nor petty boundaries to perplex Rank upon rank the pale trunks rise A silent host that drinks the dry Repetition stretching past the eyes To where the flat horizon lies Trees behind trees in quiet grace A labyrinth of slender wood Carving the stillness out of space Where centuries have stood Above, the sky ignites its coal A canopy of smoke and ember Holding the continent’s deep soul In dark and fiery surrender No hurried end, no measured shore Just red loam, shadow, branch, and tree The scrub that breathes forevermore Into the quiet of infinity. Be Creative and Innovative with Knowledge John Bennett - AKA JJFBbennett , is an independent artist. You can view and subscribe to my work via Blogge...
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