Thesis Outline

A Speculative Investigation into the Idea of Ghost Files


Table of Contents
1) "A Few Possible Beginnings"
"How to delete a Ghost File"
Anecdote of a Google search for the term Ghost Files and its only result, which is a step by step instruction on How to delete a file after error messages »cannot delete file« or »file not found« in Windows 10 and 11
"About the Forgotten and the Overlooked, the Unexpected and the Unfathomable: An Associative Exploration of an Undefined Term"
Introducing Ghost Files as a term with no definition (or every possible definition): Make connection to the anecdote of the google search and how there was no other results to be found; Explain how it seems tempting to use this ”open” term as a metaphor, yet to be filled with matter or meaning; first short introduction of Ghost as something vague and immaterial and Files as something concrete and tangible; Explain how this ambiguity of Ghost Files opens up an unknown terrain to be explored
First thoughts and ideas of what Ghost Files could be: something that is there but at the same time not actually there; hard to grasp; how to trace the untraceable?;
Keywords: overseen, overlooked, abandoned, dislocated, misplaced, marginalized, minor, ephemeral, haunting, unexpected, mistaken, misunderstood, coincidental, accidental …
"Delineating Ghost Files"
the term Ghost:
etymology, context
how it could be understood for this research: not as something obscure or spiritual, but rather as a reminder of the unknown, the unpredictable, as anti-realist and radical fiction …
the term Files:
etymology, context (the German word for file ”Datei“ is a portmanteau word, a blend of the two words ”Daten” = data and ”Kartei” = index, catalogue)
how it could be understood for this research: a file as a document, record or proof that can be filed, following specific criteria of a sorted catalogue
the term Ghost Files:
Paradox, ambiguity, fissure, spectrum
Ontology vs Hauntology: ontology as the study or knowledge of being, presence, or reality vs. hauntology as concerned with non-being, absence, and unreality
"Thinking with Ghost Files"
Invitation to think with Ghost Files:
Explaining how the term (even though or because it is yet to be defined) is useful in this research: as entry point to unknown territories, as filter or specific angle to change perspective, as mode of operation or motto for the undertaking
Explaining how thinking with Ghost Files could be relevant or useful (for example to open up new thinking spaces, to look at things differently and reveal something that is normally concealed, or to use its openness and ambiguity as driving force)
"Catching Ghost Files or The Conditions and Implications of Structure"
How not to catch Ghost Files: A few (im)possible scenarios
Anecdote 1: I schedule an appointment for myself to catch a Ghost File. I prepare everything in advance: Cleaning my desk of everything unnecessary, having some blank pages and a pen ready, making sure that nothing will interrupt me. I sit down in order to catch a Ghost File. The Ghost File doesn’t appear, so I try harder. It seems impossible!
Anecdote 2: I am walking the streets to meet a friend, passing by this store. In the window display I see a vase that I know my friend would like. So I try to take a picture and send it to him. I need a few tries, because for some reason the photos don’t show the vase, but rather a reflection of me taking the picture, of the people in the street and the clouds in the sky. Finally I manage to adjust the settings. I send the vase to my friend and delete the other photos.
Explain how these two scenarios relate to the conditions and implications of structure: example one has a very rigid framework that seems to give orientation and support, but it doesn’t allow for unexpected things to happen. Example two provides no structure at all, at least not related to the idea of catching Ghost Files. It focusses on something else completely and the Ghost Files that appear are just a byproduct, meant to be overseen and forgotten.
Introducing the main thesis of the research: The idea of Ghost Files can help to understand the limitations that structures create but also to (re)imagine structures that provide possibilities



2) "Structure and Possibility"
What is structure
Definition, etymology, simple examples in everyday life
"How Structure Creates (Im)possibilities"
Robert Musils concept of ”Sense for Possibility” and how it connects to structure on the example of the novel ”The Man Without Qualities”
from rigid hierarchy to rhizomatic re-configurations, explaining the boundaries and limitation as well as the possibilities they create
Different Aspects of Structure:
"Structure as a Noun"
a specific arrangement of elements / describes a status quo / fixed boundaries and classification, often hierarchical, rigid
"Structure as a Verb"
the arranging of elements / implies there is a state of un-structure and the final goal is structure again as a noun
"Structure as Conjunction"
and/or, focus on relationalities, the connecting element, the space in-between elements / ongoing re-configurations, no beginning, no end



3) "Re-thinking Structure and Possibility with Ghost Files"

Re-formulating the idea of Ghost Files and how it could help to re-think structure and possibility
"Ghost Files as Matter of Concern"
Explain the difference between matter of fact and matter of concern (not absolute knowledge but situated knowledges)
Suggest that there is not one but various accurate definitions for the term Ghost Files (depending on perspective, context, needs etc.)
Explain how this relates to the idea of structure as noun (absolute knowledge), but transforms it into temporary definitions that can exist in parallel and that can be re-configured any time
Possible references: Donna Haraway: Situated Knowledges, Karen Barad: Intra-action, Patricia Reed: Orientation in a Big World
"Ghost Files as A Paradoxical Space of Becoming"
The paradox (Ghost vs Files) as in-between space / the liminal space of becoming
Paradox as a spectrum of (im)possibilities
oscillating between the no-more and the not yet, between nothing and everything at the same time.
Paradox opens up unknown territorie(s) of (im)possible futures
Explain how this relates to the idea of structure as verb, but here the focus is not only on the process of becoming, but also on the space that needs to be provided for it to happen. The idea of oscillation within a spectrum also suggest that there is no beginning or ending to this process
Possible references: Hope A. Olson: Mapping Beyond Deweys Boundaries
"Cutting together/apart Ghost Files"
Cutting together/apart Ghost … and … Files, as a holding-together of the disparate itself
Diffraction: Think with Ghosts about Files / think with Files about Ghosts
But also think with Ghost Files about structure, their limitations and possibilities
Explain how this relates to the idea of structure as conjunction, …
Possible references: Karen Barad: cutting together/apart, diffraction



4) "A few Possible Endings or How to Befriend Ghost Files"
Ghost Files as a Possible Mode of Operation Towards Imaginary Futures
How to Befriend Ghost Files and scrap Beginnings and Endings
relation to practice, unfinished thoughts, invite others and the unexpected in, temporary materializations
Ghost Files as a gesture towards an open, distributed and experimental approach to publishing



5) Bibliography 
Karen Barad: "diffraction-reflection" in: "Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning"
Karen Barad, Adam Kleinmann (2012): “Intra-actions” (Interview of Karen Barad by Adam Kleinmann)
Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattarí: Rhizom
Donna Haraway: „Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective“
Robert Musil: The Man Without Qualities
Hope A. Olson: „Mapping Beyond Dewey´s Boundaries: Constructing Classificatory Space for Marginalized Knowledge Domains“
Patricia Reed: "Orientation in a Big World: On the Necessity of Horizonless Perspectives" 


Mode of address: academic essay with anecdotal passages

The thesis will focus on the theoretical context, on "thinking with Ghost Files".

The project will be a more personal, intimate, reflective and practical research, "thinking, reading, writing and making with Ghost Files".

One will accompany the other, with explicit or implicit interconnections in-between, again creating a space for new possibilities to emerge.