Scientific Theories Behind Ghost Hauntings
Artistic Research:
As this is a self-satisfactory inserted illustration with no external advisor and no clients, I went about it for my original purpose: Combine an engaging, evocative piece of art with scientific information in an easy-to-digest language.
Due to the sheer amount of multidisciplinary knowledge integrated into this one phenomenon, I prioritise the text to have sufficient space and to be playful.
• I started with a blank mind state, sketching with a pencil and paper what a haunted scene could look like.
• To avoid going down the rabbit whole of individual experiences, I focused on scientific research done to areas being haunted, and what reading were found there. After my readings, I doubled down on the stereotypical haunted graveyard to highlight that it takes -hypothetically- exceptional circumstances to present us with a haunting experience, rather than putting a ghost in a regular daylight. It may be to some, but then it would be argued that this is individual-specific and that the particular circumstances, therefore, coincide with the individual rather than the area. But that would also open the rabbit hole of whether these individuals are neurologically, psychologically, mentally healthy or even fall within the ‘average’ group to be subjects of such studies that are trying to be as objective as they could be.
Therefore, the decision was made to keep it to the ‘average’ person passing by a ‘haunted’ area.
• Then, on a nice productive night, I collected a collage of references to set the scene on Procreate.
•On that collage, I painted roughly, the scenery
• I placed it in InDesign and then Illustrator and finally switched to Photoshop to add and integrate the text onto it as I found it to be best suited for this illustration.
• This Brain illustration here is one of the first brains I drew in Procreate, first used on the OBE chapter and used again here. Since the literature only mentions clear theories on the Angular gyrus, I used the standardised lateral view.
The result of the scientific research can be found in the illustration...