HOW TO BUILD A GHOST
Some thoughts on content finding, the materiality of words and writing.
It’s not easy to see a ghost. We try, over and over, and fail. I once had a history teacher who dedicated maybe five years of his life tracking down locations with paranormal activity and nothing. Zit. Null.
One way is to take matters into your own hands like the rabbi’s from The Golem who gave life to an almost human demon with the power of, my favorite sourcery, words.
So demons, ghosts, specters exist if not physically, through words that make up concepts that have big enough of an influence to have tangible effects in our lives.
They persist.
Let’s see how this works for content.
Saussure persisted that peoples are usually satisfied with the language they inherit and that explains why linguistic signs tend to stay fixed over time. They resist random change because it’s convenient to us and we’re happy with them.
So if Saussure is right and words haunt us through generations, are invisible but influence us, change according to the region, but persist in essence, we have a solid case to prove words are just another kind of ghost.
¿Can we do a better job at summoning them than my history professor?
A specter is a visible incorporeal spirit, the image of something we’ve seen somewhere else.
It’s easy to forget that words are not disembodied. They have shape. They have texture. That’s what the Bouba/Kiki effect is all about: certain sounds are associated to certain shapes. Bouba is most likely round and Kiki is pointy.
We can then add more complex variables to it: is the sound high pitched? sharp? flat?
We don’t notice the material properties of language until we hear a voice rumble through the walls of a church or a person with a heavy accent address us to only then become aware we first understand how people say things and second what they’re saying.
Above that, words have a literal materiality. They are made up of letters, that make up words, that take up space. The more focus we put on the material part of the word, the harder it is to communicate because storytelling is interference. An ultimately an attack on clarity: there is a more direct way to say something and we beat around the bush for no reason other than engagement.
If we focus on the variables that summon the visual aspect to words, it’s a great starting point to create solid branding, podcast, or whatever you’re seeking. I dwell more than necessary on my texts for pleasure, but it’s super good for brainstorming.
Who is it that specter we think we’ve already seen? What colors are associated with it? What does it smell like? With that, a concept is born. It’s a matter of giving it substance, spirit, emét .
Spell books, a Ouija board or eyes the better to see you with
LeWitt asked artists to stop worrying about being clever and original. For him, most decisions can be made with a mathematical formula, and when all else fails, by putting all the elements equidistant to generate a constant rhythm that sets the audience in a trance. It can’t fail, he said.
Words are ghosts because they’re placeholders for something we can’t grasp. If the goal is to make people see them too, being clever and original isn’t always necessary. We’re not the first ones who to try summon a ghost: there’s plenty of ground covered and canned formulas are sometimes truly the best option. That’s what a spell book is. I wouldn’t fear repeating someone else’s trick, the key is to be consistent and create a framework or system with a clear direction or goal, some variables to keep track of and off you go.
Though some people have more experience manipulating words, if you want a deeper conversation, let us know and we’ll get you in touch with all the possibilities the semantic universe has to offer.
Now, Ghostwriting: how do you build a ghost?
The name of the praxis is self explanatory. Ghostwriting is the art of impersonating another in order to summon their ghost. Seeing the word as a reflection of someone else is useful to create a strategy: you have to get to know the ghost, talk to it, see how it speaks, how it pauses, how it lurks, if it omits things. When collecting and curating content, one becomes a medium for the ghost to become tangible.
And once it’s tangible, you’ve got yourself the means for a strategy. Or a book with a captivating narrative. This can lead to drawing someone’s voice on a graph with its rises and falls. It could be translated into an analogy of a landscape, a melody, anything really. It has become a specter with it’s materiality and all the potential paths we just mentioned to shape it.
So, what does your ghost look like? Brainstorm it. Invite it to the world of the living through formulas, interviews and metaphors for it to wreak havoc.
