Preface: Hauntographies of Ordinary Shipwrecks

Abstract

To preface the five chapters and postface to come, the role of shipwrecks in the modern imaginary is explored before examining the common ground between art and archaeology. The term hauntography is defined as a creative process that combines the methods of Bogost’s alien phenomenology— ontography, metaphorism, and carpentry—to attempt comprehension and communication of an object that is absent and present, bygone and enduring. To encounter a shipwreck underwater is a brush with the uncanny, the eerie, and the weird, but also the sublime and wondrous. Hauntography works to edge closer toward an ontological recognition of an inscrutable entity. Beginning with a personal apologia of sorts, the preface concludes by summarizing the arguments and evidence to follow.