Major
Digital Project: Hauntology
Project Menu: Hauntology
Research:
Experimentation:
Design process:
Project Reflections and Future:
Potential Area's of Research:
LOST FUTURES
Mark Fisher - Ghost of my Life - The Slow Cancellation of The Future - Capitalist Realism
Owen Wilson - Lost Futures
Brutalism
Concepts of Society
Concepts of power and Culture
Hauntology: Research, Reference, Inspiration
Hauntology is a topic I came across while researching my dissertation, which was focused on creativity and technology. During the research the phrase Hauntology was discovered while looking into the ways in which society today currently has difficulty imagining the future or an alternative to its self. This was found through the work of Mark Fisher and theories on Lost Futures and the Slow Cancellation of the Future.
It is something that, from my brief research, appears to have a variety of applications from a philosophical theory, a way commenting on and encouraging action around societies current state to a pure aesthetic style.
I find the overall concept of Hauntology, which at the moment I believe to be the ways in which past version of the future 'haunt' current society through elements of popular culture like Film, Music and Architecture, with the re-occurrence of their themes, and with them the social constructs which they were born out of.
Key works, themes, and figures I came across during this brief research are as followed:
Mark Fisher - Ghost of my Life - Ghosts of My Life - Capitalist Realism
Owen Wilson - Lost Futures
Brutalism
Jack Derrida - Spectres of Marx
Understanding Hauntology
The concept asks people to consider how “spectres” of alternative futures influence current and historical discourse, and acknowledges that this “haunting” – or the study of the non-existent – has real effects.
Hauntological art (i.e. art that permits a hauntological reading, art that has hauntological aesthetic effects) can be thought of as having two stages, or layers. The first layer seems to present something that’s in some way idealised – this is often but not always an image involving the past
The second, ‘hauntological’ layer problematises, compromises and obfuscates the first layer, undermining or damaging it in some way and introducing irony into the work, and represents the opinionated viewpoint of the present. While the first layer might express hope and confidence, the hauntological layer contradicts and undoes this by expressing a satirical doubt and disillusionment.
This can be achieved using ‘lo-fi’ effects (such as fading, dirt, or low quality materials in plastic art; noise, reverb, filters and audibly decaying or broken technology in music) and various forms of ‘unprofessionality’, surrealism, fragmentation and collage, all of which is analogous to a traditional ghost’s ectoplasm, pale colour and binding chains, signifying undeath. It’s the key role played by this hauntological layer that distinguishes hauntological art from art that’s simply retro or idealistic.
As with Boards of Canada’s warped, eroded tape, Peter Doig’s rotting celluloid and D-L Alvarez’s graphite pixelation, Dan Hays demonstrates the failure and decay of technological media during the task of re-presentation, and, once again, allegorises the ultimately tragic endeavour of human art(ifice) in doing so – Nature becomes a ghost.
Hauntology Time Line:
Nicolas Abraham and Maria Torok - Psychoanalysts - 1976:
The Phantom
Transgenerational Communication
Family Trauma
Personal Secrets
Derrida - 1993:
Challenged the widely accepted notion that communism was “dead” as a concept and liberal democracy had triumphed, as the American political scientist Francis Fukuyama argued in his 1992 book The End of History and The Last Man.
Utopia haunts reality and reality haunts Utopia
Mark Fisher - 2006:
Associated the early Nineties “end of history” with what he called “capitalist realism” – the belief that there is no alternative to capitalism.
“the slow cancellation of the future” - quoting Frnaco Berardi
In both culture and politics we seem stuck in the same loop
“new” things are produced only through the imitation and pastiche of old forms (consider the example of a musician such as Adele, whose work seems situated in some non-specific “classic” era).
The “principal sonic signature of hauntology” was the use of crackle, the surface noise made by a needle on vinyl.
what is being mourned in hauntological music, according to Fisher, is not “a particular period” but rather the possibilities that certain bygone eras were felt to contain.
Hauntology is not, therefore, primarily about nostalgia: it is about imagination.
'Let’s put it this way: it’s easy to say, “Oh, things were great in the 70s, let’s go back to the 70s,” but I think the real issue is “What kind of future did we expect from the 70s?” I mean, there was a trajectory, and this trajectory was interrupted. And now we find ourselves haunted by this future that we vaguely expected at the time, and that was terminated somewhere during the 80s by the values related to neoliberalism. From this point of view, it’s no coincidence that the 80s saw a traumatic and violent defeat of the Left, at least in the UK.'
Wesite Reading and research:
Below is a link to the references and links to the web based research I have carried out. Hauntology is not the most published of subjects, so the main bulk of my projects theoretical research is listed here.
Hauntological Artists:
Burial: Music
Boards of Canada: Music
Peter Doig: Painter
D-L Alverez
Dan Hays
Mark Weaver: Artist / Designer
Neo Raunch
!! What do I consider Hauntology to be and why is it relevant? !!
I see Hauntology as a vehicle to comment on the current situation British society and culture (and potentially globally) appears to be in.
I feel the current societal and cultural outlook is one which knows that 'things aren't great', but is incapable of envisioning a future in which 'things' are better, and as per Hauntological theorising by Mark Fisher this results in a returning to past eras, via the cultural aesthetics and artefacts of these periods, in order to reuse, or perhaps seek comfort in these bygone eras visions of the future. Therefore society and it's future envisioning capabilities become trapped, or more fittingly lose, floating, with no real attachment to the present moment.
Purposely Hauntologyical art, through its borrowing of past aesthetical forms combined with current technological capabilities, evokes a sense of placelessness, a feeling of familiarity yet sense of the undefinable. This could be seen as a reflection of the underlying, possibly unconscious, current cultural and social outlook of the UK.
Purposely Hauntological Art Examples
The Caretaker:
An Empty Bliss Beyond This World
'The Caretaker was a long-running project by electronic musician James Leyland Kirby, who also records as V/Vm. His work under the Caretaker moniker has been characterised as exploring memory and the gradual deterioration of it, nostalgia, and melancholia. Initially the project was inspired by the haunted ballroom scene in the 1980 film The Shining, with his first several releases consisting of treated and manipulated samples of '30's ballroom pop recordings'
Panamint Manse
The Gravel Ghost
'Colourfully homespun electronic music that’s often playful, modest, and sentimental. I make unassuming sounds for the unworldly, designed to mend.'
Scarfolk Council
'Scarfolk is a town in North West England that did not progress beyond 1979. Instead, the entire decade of the 1970s loops ad infinitum. Here in Scarfolk, pagan rituals blend seamlessly with science; hauntology is a compulsory subject at school, and everyone must be in bed by 8pm because they are perpetually running a slight fever. "Visit Scarfolk today. Our number one priority is keeping rabies at bay." For more information please reread.'
Luc Tuymans:
Luc Tuymans (born 1958) is a Belgian artist who lives and works in Antwerp. Tuymans is considered one of the most influential painters working today. His signature figurative paintings transform mediated film, television, and print sources into examinations of history and memory.
Neo Rauch
Luc Tuymans (born 1958) is a Belgian artist who lives and works in Antwerp. Tuymans is considered one of the most influential painters working today. His signature figurative paintings transform mediated film, television, and print sources into examinations of history and memory.
Mark Weaver ! Key Reference !
Luc Tuymans (born 1958) is a Belgian artist who lives and works in Antwerp. Tuymans is considered one of the most influential painters working today. His signature figurative paintings transform mediated film, television, and print sources into examinations of history and memory.
literature Inspiration
Olaf Stapledon: The Last and First Men
In the Preface to this work of fiction, Olaf (what a name) begins by laying out his intentions for his work. In which he describes how by exploring just one small thread of a potential possible future for the human race, he is encouraging the reader to consider their present state, the various possibilities and eventualities that lie ahead. He is also championing the power of imaginitive potenial futures.
Olaf's envisionment of the future is one that could be considered pessimestic: 'I have imagined that for aesthetic purposes that our race will destory it's self', however he explains that this can be used again, as a somewhat way of self reflection, and the ability for the human race to consider it's potential futures, and their actions.
I feel this is really what is at the heart of Hauntological Art. It's ability to get the user or reader or listener, to really consider their current situation, and from that see outside of it, and regaine the belief that 'this isn't it'. Humans as a collective have the ability to shape and dictate their future to a large extent. We do not have to be trapped and head down the path that already appears to be layed out and awaiting us.
Philosophical Connections to Hauntology
Hauntology is often seen as a somewhat philosophical outlook, with it's routes lying in the philioposopy of Derida, I feel it is imporant to explore other types of philosophical thinking around themes such as time, history and society, particuarly those that deal with cycles, repeition and the past.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
- Human Progress cannot be linear
Hegel feel relivant to my project in his referencing of history and the way it is used to shape the present moment. Hegels views could be construde as a somewhat postive hauntology.
Philosophize This! Episode #066 ... Hegel pt. 1 - Introduction
Research take aways and thoughts:
Throughout my research into the theory of Hauntology, the medium of ‘collage’ has been a regular occurance, particularly in the work of those creating intentionally Hauntological work. As I have learnt more about the different approaches and interpretations of Hauntology, collage has also begun to feel quite applicable to the theory itself. Returning to past eras to revisit and revive parts of past aesthetics and movements, the attempts to borrow the ideologies or seek comfort in them from the use of artefacts from the times where they were present could be considered a form of a societal or cultural collaging. A blending of era’s and time to create something which feels new but is always underpinned with the old and the past.
For these reasons, I believe that collage would be an appropriate medium for my project to be built around.
An interface or system which allows users to create their own collages, perhaps from a predefined list, in which the images available are socially and culturally resonant to the UK, would allow the user a creative space to explore the issue of hauntology and ideally become informed about its intended message. Which is one of self and society questioning. Wondering why things are like they are, how they got to this point, and that things don’t have to be this way if enough people want change.
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