An exploration of the multidisciplinary creative culture encapsulated by the term industrial art, spanning musical, visual, multimedia, and performance arts. Shock Factory introduces the visual and aesthetic elements of 1970s and 1980s industrial culture to a general history of contemporary art by analysing the different approaches taken and topics addressed by the primary protagonists of the movement, who perceptively anticipated the current discourse concerning the media and their collective coercive power.

Nicolas Ballet is an art historian and assistant curator in the New Media Department of the Centre Pompidou in Paris, France.

"If future generations really want to know how it happened, they will now be able to explore the dopamine darkness of this extraordinary history."
Graeme Revell

"Nicolas Ballet's in depth analysis and comprehensive research provides a valuable insight into the objectives, attitudes and motives behind the imagery used by exponents of the many forms of Industrial music."
Cosey Fanni Tutti

"Most publications concerning industrial music dealt with the old cliche of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. For sure there was sex and drugs but rock 'n' roll was the enemy. So I'm very happy of this very deep dive into the iconography of the industrial music. It will give you a much better understanding of what it was/is all about."
FM Einheit

"This book is a thoroughly researched catalogue of ideas, suggestions, gestures, all intended to push existential issues to the front of your mind. To act on them, to truly explore your own. Z'EV sums it up: it's about being."
John Duncan