A Round Journey

My research into the cultural significance of circular forms brought me to Braille. The representation in print (a process which obfuscates its functionality) of this universal code, was my gateway towards my chosen output solution.

Originally I was influenced by the Joe Magee’s 2002, Daily Telegraph images. The use of Braille gave the images a double effect. The graphic form of Braille lettering in its printed form, provided a modernist, high tech, digital age aesthetic. The second layer of meaning required the viewer to identify the code and to then translate the hidden message. Braille is obviously a tactile language designed for the blind, newspaper readers couldn’t be expected to be familiar with its functionality. This is apparent in the time it took for the publication to discover the nature of the coded proclamations.

My original output concept involved the development of a new tactile language derived from roman letter forms. I hoped that this would provide a 3D vehicle that could be integrated into the imagery in order to subvert their visual connotation with a politically charged tactile rhetoric. I felt that this could present a unique point of entry into material that can otherwise appear clichéd. On reflection, I was perhaps guilty of considering the final outcome & trying to bend the ‘problem’ to fit my version of the answer.

The feedback I received at the time suggested that I should treat my output proposal as two separate concepts. It was recommended that I choose to concentrate on either tactile languages (codes) or the subversion of images with politically charged text.
Reflecting on this formative assessment, I resolved to research methods of viewer empowerment. To devise a purposeful ‘made’ project that would allow the user to construct their own meaning from a combination of ambiguous images and signifiers that have been removed from their original context.

I concentrated my secondary research into the fields of coded paradigms and the methodology of visual grammar. I found the theory of semiotics, particularly the David Crow publications, hugely rewarding. The concept of type as images, images as type and the functionality of anchor and relay, gave my output proposal a new impetus.

The biblical story of the Tower of Babel is a powerful metaphor for language, understanding and codes. According to the story, the descendants of Noah spoke a single language – a universal tongue. Going against God’s will, they decided to build a city with a huge tower as a monument of their achievement, to ‘make a name for themselves’. There are obvious parallels with the modern day erection of skyscrapers – monuments to capitalism. The globalization of money and consumerism is today's ‘common currency’ or universal tongue. The Bruegel painting and the image of the Shard have been spliced together in order to construct an ideational metafunction.

The Maritime flag signals have been chosen to translate the proclamations of man. The flag is a device for identity and announcement. The inhabitants of Babel wanted to draw attention to their achievements. Flags are also the basis of the custom built ‘Semaphore’ typeface.

The arrangement of the icons of corporate and political identity is symbolic of the omnipresence of capitalism. These identities are the prosaic wallpaper of everyday life, a type of banal cultural backdrop – similar to the sponsor boards behind any celebrity interviewee or talking head. Each of these symbols has its individual ‘brand values’ that strain the limits of readability, thus becoming ‘hypographemics’ – the ideal vehicle to communicate a ‘confusion of tongues’.

Other devices I have used include the ubiquitous barcode and QR code, which operate as a form of consumer ‘emblemata’. Elsewhere, I have included various iconic signs and pictographic images, as a reference to a universal public information functionality.
For the artifact to operate in an ‘open’ way – free for the viewer to navigate and disseminate their own understanding, I have devised a deliberately polarized layout. No single element takes centre stage. Instead they are distributed, almost as a triptych. Unidirectional transactional vectors link various elements.

Where possible I have avoided too much over-layering of information. Issues of legibility would have removed much of the theoretical intentionality. I am hopeful that the final result, rather like studying a beautiful car crash, presents a blizzard of possible interpretations.

Hauntology

Research Question:

I propose to conduct a visual investigation based on the theoretic principles of Hauntology. Hauntology - the logic of the ghost, is ephemeral and abstract. Spectres are unsettling because they are never fully seen. Culturally accepted notions of a haunting occur when the present is visited by a spirit from the past, usually with a warning about the future. This manifestation of space disrupted by a time that is ‘out-of-joint’ is known as a dyschronia.

Dyschronia is manifest in the persistent traces of that which has never arrived, but which will never go away. [Fisher 2006]

The term ‘ Hauntology’ was introduced by French philosopher Jacques Derrida in his 1993 publication ‘Spectres of Marx’. In it, Derrida postulated that following the demise of ‘real socialisms’ in Europe and the displacement of leftist political formations. The West will continue to be haunted by Marx’s spirit of radical critique as an antidote to the apparent ‘death of ideology’.

“To haunt does not mean to be present, and it is necessary to introduce haunting into the very construction of a concept. Of every concept, beginning with the concepts of being and time. That is what we would be calling here a hauntology” [Derrida]

There is some conjecture that Derrida may have used ‘hauntology’ as a near-homophone to the word ‘ontology’. Ontology is the philosophical study of all phenomena that have existed and will exist, visible and invisible. The binary opposition of the concepts of hauntology and ontology, bears all the hallmarks of Derrida’s earlier    formulation of a type of semiotic analysis, called ‘deconstruction’.

Deconstructionism challenges the spectral space that exists between polar opposites such as; ‘speech/writing’, ‘life/death’, ‘signifier/signified’.  This process of metaphysical re interpretation, involves overturning traditional hierarchies, adjusting their structure and altering their functionality. Deconstruction questions how the external representation of a concept can become part of its internal essence - How the surface can get under the skin.

My research question is: 

How can hauntological concepts be expressed in the specific fields of graphic design?

Aims and Objectives:

Postmodernism as expressed in late capitalist society has instigated a cultural malaise. The sterility of the political landscape represents ‘the end of politics & ideology’. New technologies encourage an unwillingness to commit to the present, fostering a ghostly presence/absence or ‘non time’. The prosaic architectural functionality of airports, retail parks, and other homogeneous buildings, absent of any sense of identity are examples of ‘non-places’. Crucially, postmodernisms appetite for a ceaseless diet of pastiche and revivalism, signifies the ‘loss of loss itself’, nothing dies anymore. This lack of cultural momentum signals, for many, ‘the end of history’, as Hamlet said to Horatio, time itself, is ‘out of joint’.

If history has run out, hauntology only grows more relevant as years go on. Indeed, hauntology may be the closest thing we have to a zeitgeist. [Fisher 2006]

The present can only be viewed through the lens of the past, with occasional glances into the future. Today’s cultural obsession with revivalism (retromania) represents a denial of the future in favor of the comforting reassurance offered by the ‘ghost’ of the past. This intellectual realignment of history is unsatisfactory and untenable. Hauntology proposes a positive alternative to postmodernity's 'nostalgia mode'.

What is nostalgia if not an amnesia of the present (and future)? Amnesia of the present, is the complement to hauntology's nostalgia for the future. [Fisher]

I have a passion for visual innovation and digital experimentation. To have any substance, these examination require the consolidation of solid theoretical rationale. My recently completed Degree – Final Honours Project used Glitch Art to communicate the Derridian theory of deconstruction. I believe hauntology could offer the next logical step in that line of experimental enquiry.

Audience

Although the philosophical background of my subject matter may be considered ‘high brow’ my intention is not present any solution which might be considered elitist. Concepts of spiritualism and the supernatural have a wider cultural appeal. I would hope that any final output that successfully illustrates the sociological relevance of hauntology would have significant resonance.

Context

Hauntology is an aesthetic effect, a way of reading and understanding design. Works which might hauntological frequently incorporate optimistically archaic imagery such as those associated with ‘retrofuturism’ or ‘steampunk’. These are often represented using discordant ‘lo-fi’ effects, surrealism, fragmentation or collage.

Hauntological imagery is generally comprised of two opposing layers. The first layer (‘the past’) might express hope and confidence, but can only be seen through the lens of the second layer (‘the present’) which casts doubt on the ‘truth’ of the first layer by expressing a satirical doubt and disillusionment. This process of obfuscation is a metaphor for memory.

There is a long-standing link between ghosts and modern technology. A plethora of  contemporary horror films have featured the demonic possession of digital or analogue technologies. An examination of ‘ghosts in the machine’, or the echos of JPEG compression artifacts may be appropriate avenues of enquiry.

Other rich fields of hauntological examination are; the enigma of the ‘non place’ and placelessness, memorial and longing, transitional beings, displacement and disappearance, demonic manifestations, auras, elegies of nature, and the translucency of the psyche. At its most basic level, hauntology has associations with faux-vintage photography, a genre of atmospheric, electronic music, movies such as ‘Inception’ or ‘The Shining’ and TV series like ‘Life on Mars’.

Although the philosophical field of hauntology is relatively nascent and doesn’t have a huge epistemology. I believe there may be sufficient research material concerning related fields. Rather than a focused study on dyschronia, I may be able to use hauntology as a lens through which I can analyze graphic design processes that interrogate perceptions of life/death, future/past and presence/absence.

Related fields of study that I intend to study:

• Semiotics

• Psychogeography

• Retro futurism

• Philosophy (esp. post structuralism)

• Sociology

• State Censorship

• Samizdat

• Public information broadcasting

• Moving image and film studies

• X-ray photography

• Glitch art and databending

• Spiritualism and witchcraft

Action Plan

Methodology:

Derrida’s hauntology is defined by its ambiguity; that is, it hovers in the spectral space, the threshold of being and presence, life and death, departure and return. Today, hauntology inspires many fields of investigation, from the visual arts to philosophy through electronic music, politics, fiction and literary criticism. It covers issues of postmodernism, metafiction and retro-futurism, dyscronia, spiritualism and phantoms, displacement and longing. It can even be seen as a way of describing the fluidity of identity among individuals, marking the dynamic and inevitable shades of influence that link one person’s experience to anothers, both in the present and over time.

My task during unit 2 will be to rationalize the potential of these disparate zones to yield opportunities for visual dialogue. I will need to conduct secondary and tertiary research into examples of hauntological design in order to chart its development as a visual language. This will no doubt take the form of a visual audit that identifies examples of design which bear the hallmarks of hauntological rationalization. Once these examples have been typologized it should be possible to analyze and critique their methodologies as well as quantifying their cultural resonance.

If during the course of my research I encounter a practitioner, whose work I find particularly insightful, I may take the opportunity to instigate some form of dialogue in order to enhance my research findings.

Throughout each stage of the research process it will be necessary to conduct continuous visual experimentation in order to test findings and generate ideas for the output stage. Although I’m keen to adopt an output solution which is a departure from traditional print techniques, I need to take an even-handed approach in order to identify the appropriate field of graphic design for each line of enquiry.

Output ideas:

Although, at this point, I wouldn’t like to predict the format of any final outcome. This could take the form of a single project, multiple linked experiments or a thesis. I am confident that the subject matter will allow me to scope to demonstrate all the major learning outcomes: experimentation/ research, subject knowledge / analysis, personal and professional development,  technical competence/ communication and presentation skills.

Potential output ideas:

• Ghosts in the machine - digital compression

• Audiovisual piece based on hauntalogical soundtrack

• Echo’s - ancient radio waves from space

• Hauntalogical typographic study

• X-ray imagery based on Rotentgenizdat / Samizdat

• Presence / absence, etching on acrylic materials

Bibliography

Derrida, J. (1993) Specters of Marx: The State of the Debt, the Work of Mourning & the New International. Paris: Éditions Galilée

Fisher, M. (2006) Hauntology as neurology December 24, 2006. Available online at http://k-punk.abstractdynamics.org/archives/2006_12.html

Harper, A. (2009) Hauntology: The Past Inside The Present Tuesday, 27 October 2009. Available online at http://rougesfoam.blogspot.co.uk/2009/10/hauntology-past-inside-present.html

McNeil, J. (2011) Past and Present in "Strange Simultaneity": Mark Fisher Explains Hauntology at NYU. Available online at: http://rhizome.org/editorial/2011/may/18/hauntology/

Fisher, M. (2006) Hauntology as neurology December 24, 2006. Available online at: http://k-punk.abstractdynamics.org/archives/2006_12.html

casualagent (2011) HAUNTOLOGY – preliminary notes Posted: December 7, 2011. Available online at: http://project47.org/2011/12/07/hauntology-preliminary-notes/

Gallix, A. (2011)  Hauntology: A not-so-new critical manifestation 17 June 2011. Available online at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/jun/17/hauntology-critical

Hewicker, S. (2010)  Hauntology Exhibition 2010 . Available online at: http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/exhibition/hauntology

Gildersleeve, J. (2007) An Unnameable Thing: Spectral Shadows in Elizabeth Bowen’s The Hotel and The Last September, University of Bristol egjeg@bristol.ac.uk

Dunn, M D. (2007) On Emediacy: The Internet as Occult Space / Perceiving the Human in the Electronic Realm mddunn@shaw.ca

Jameson, F. (1991) Postmodernism, or the cultural logic of late capitalism. London: Verso

Lacan, J. (1977) Écrits: A Selection*, transl. by Alan Sheridan, New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1977, and revised version, 2002, transl. by Bruce Fink

Derrida, J. (1967) Of Grammatology. English translation 1976. Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press 
Darian Leader: Introducing Lacan: A Graphic Guide 
Slavoj Zizek: Enjoy Your Symptom!: Jacques Lacan in Hollywood and Out 
Slavoj Zizek: Living in the End Times 
Francis Fukuyama: The end of history and the last man 
Simon Reynolds: Retro mania: Pop Culture's Addiction to its Own Past 
Esther Peeren and Maria del Pilar Blanco: Popular Ghosts: The Haunted Spaces of Everyday Culture 
Stuart Sim: Derrida and the End of History (Postmodern Encounters) 
Mark Simon Riley: An Aesthetics of Hauntology 
Thomas Mical: Hauntology, or Spectral Space 
Colin Davis: Hauntology, spectres and phantoms 
Marc Augé: Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity 
David King: The Commissar Vanishes 
Nick Vasey: X-Ray – See Through the World Around you 
Ann Komaromi: The Material Existence of Soviet Samizdat.

Malcolm Gaskill: Hellish Nell: Last of Britain's Witches