A Necessary Haunting

Abstract

Notice: In light of unforeseen circumstances concerning the COVID-19 pandemic, certain elements of the paper regarding audience interaction are no longer possible yet are still integral to the messages and ideas of the overall project A Necessary Haunting is a multimedia installation showing the cultural effects of a legend based, it is to be presumed, in the Maryland town of Loketon. A short narrative film titled ?Loketon Station? dramatizes events described, presumably, by Remy Lazarus in his anthology novel A Haunting in Loketon, which details the reality-shifting forces of a supernatural zone. The effects this legend has on a town across time are shown through ? again, presumably ? a historical society?s travel video and sculptural elements intended to bring the audience into the fiction. All elements described as ?presumed? so far are fictional. I am the sole creator of all content in this written thesis and exhibition. I am assuming the roles of author Remy Lazarus, filmmaker Adan Rodriguez (a fictionalized version of myself), as well as the Loketon Tourism Office. In this document, structured as a book, I have included a manuscript written by Lazarus describing his process, my own analysis of his writing, insight into the creation of the short film, and the perspective of the tourism office displaying these various elements. An appendix includes a script of the film along with images to give further detail of the process (storyboards, location photos, research images, etc.). In my metatextual writing and installation, I blur the line between fact and fiction. On the one hand, I uncover the deeper meanings of the events that presumably took place in the Maryland town through the study of symbol and technique. On the other hand, I point to media?s ability to influence society and provide evidence for the unreal.