Like a Ghost Touched Your Heart: Burial’s Sonic Hauntology

A post by Edward Campbell-Rowntree

Sometimes you get that feeling like a ghost touched your heart, like someone walks with you.

— Burial*

 

Are you haunted by ghosts of the past and phantoms of your future? Welcome to the spooky realm of hauntology

A post by Alasdair Macintyre

Do you believe in ghosts? Every year, Halloween serves up the usual images of spooks, skeletons and witches – but these ideas aren’t just the domain of fiction or trick-or-treating. There is also a philosophical concept that embraces ghosts.

It is called “hauntology”, and it might just make you a believer.

The word hauntology was invented by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida for his 1993 lecture Spectres of Marx.

Derrida was a whimsical guy, and the words “hauntology” and “ontology” both sound identical when spoken in French.

Ontology is the philosophical study of existence and being, dating back as far as ancient Greece. In Derrida’s mind, ontology was shadowed by hauntology, a state of non-being.

Hauntology is that eerie zone where time collapses and our past memories and associations haunt our minds, like a ghost.

(2/2) Specters in the Computer: A Hauntological Interpretation of Vaporwave

A post by Borna Šućurović

**This is the latter part of the article; the former comes before.

Fisher's Intervention: Lost Futures and the Spectral Not Yet

Before we bring Derrida's hauntology in connection with vaporwave it is important to note two additional points, the first of which has to do with terminology. Throughout the French original of the Specters of Marx Derrida uses two 'names' for specters: la spectre and le revenant. While the former tries to express at once all of the properties explained in the previous chapter, the latter places particular emphasis on the reversible function of spectral existents. Le revenant – in both French and English languages – denotes a 'returning ghost', one who returns from somewhere. By using this name Derrida is attempting to show how specters return into temporal planes they do not belong to and within which certain forms of the work of mourning are already underway. As Merlin Coverley writes in the third chapter of his Hauntology;

(1/2) Specters in the Computer: A Hauntological Interpretation of Vaporwave

A post by Borna Šućurović

Introduction

 

On February 29th, 2016 a video entitled S U N D A Y S C H O O L was uploaded to YouTube and quickly became known as one of the first examples of what has since been dubbed simpsonwave. The video follows Bart Simpson's time spent going to Sunday school and getting to know Jessica, the daughter of reverend Lovejoy with whom he falls unhappily in love. While these events are taking place, the song Teen Pregnancy by Blank Banshee – in which an androgynous voice repeats the phrases "I'm just a kid" and "It was just a little mistake" over the beats of synthesizer-infused music – is playing in the background. A VHS filter is present throughout the entire duration of the video, giving off the impression that the footage was saved from a video cassette from the mid-1990s and subsequently digitized.

"Minny don’t burn chicken": humour, hauntology, and fried chicken stereotype

A jubilant International Women's Day post by Sheng-Hsiang Lance Peng

In the 2011 period drama film, The Help, there is a memorable scene where Celia and Minny share a meal at the same table. This scene marks the beginning of their budding friendship, as Minny teaches Celia how to cook. However, there is a humorous twist when Celia, who hired Minny as help without her husband’s knowledge (though he was actually aware), jokingly suggests that she might overcook the chicken. Minny, in a somber manner, responds with, "Minny don’t burn chicken". This engaging and witty exchange serves as a captivating starting point to explore the historical significance of fried chicken through the lens of hauntology (Derrida, 1994), looking into the persistence of past cultural phenomena in the present and uncovering hidden layers of meaning within its history.

Hauntology and imagination in Troye Sivan’s Got Me Started music video

A post by Sheng-Hsiang Lance Peng

Hess (2021) contends that critical reconstructionism and abolitionism prompt us to critically assess and change the conditions influencing our lives, whether through reform, transformation, or abolition. This transformative endeavour involves envisioning alternatives that diverge significantly from the current path shaped by converging crises. Music can deeply contribute to this imaginative process by encouraging us to perceive things differently, overcome limitations in understanding others, and engage in “freedom dreaming” (p. 273), a belief that dreaming is imperative for societal transformation, recognising that having a vision for the future not only informs present actions but also shapes society’s trajectory. Using this reconstructive standpoint prompts us to acknowledge that the evocative influence of music videos surpasses mere entertainment.