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Day 46 of "Figuring it Out" - The Sociology of Ghostly Atmospheres

Updated: 5 days ago

Kia Ora friends! Happy Monday!


How are ya'll going today? I know that it's always boring to talk about the weather but I seem to have gotten into the habit of discussing what Melbourne weather is like at the start of my blog post, and you know what, I'm probably going to keep doing it - so deal with it (or learn to skim read). Ha, that feels a bit intense for the start of the blog today, but Melbourne weather this morning was a little cold, but the sun was out and then it was absolutely gorgeous outside and I got too hot with my jacket and then this afternoon it's turned quite dark outside so a storm is definitely a-brewing (I'm not even sure that's a real word!). In health news, I'm feeling relatively okay today, although I do have a bit of a headache and sore tummy but not much dizziness today (so yay).


Today was my last official day at work but as an RDO - so like a day off after working the weekend so all I had to do was return my equipment back to the office so I did that this morning. Thanks to Luke for driving us to return all my gear. Doesn't quite feel real just yet but I really hope this is the start of something new for me. Anyways, after that, one of my friends from CHCH was visiting a friend in Melbourne for a week so we went to brunch at Top Paddock in South Yarra and caught up with some lovely kiwi friends (hopefully they read this blog post for their mention). I also took my mum to Top Paddock when she visited Melbourne earlier this year and have had good thoughts all round about it. I liked the food there! I think I'm slowly becoming an expert at Melbourne brunch spots - I guess I call myself a foodie though. I love food. Food is life. Anyway, we came back home after that and then went caught up on a few more errands around the house, and Luke's gone to an appointment so I'm just waiting for the washing machine and decided I'd write a blog post as we're going out again tonight for dinner to celebrate Luke's dad's birthday. I was planning on doing a blog post later tonight but I just wanted to give myself some purpose for today and thought I might get too tired later on.


I've also been getting some constructive criticism re the blog which I appreciate, although I do always struggle with the negative criticism a lot more because I'm mainly doing this for me, and at the moment, it's more like an online journal, which a few others have pointed out and I don't really know if people care enough about me to want to know what I've been up to. But I just have to keep persevering and keep writing because it's really good for my mental health. I wish I wrote more. I wish I wrote more poetry. Luke suggested trying to write music - but that's something I don't have any knowledge about, but I can write poems so I guess that's something. I did have some slam poetry on here but I don't think Google liked it too much so I took it down. I'm rambling now. Not sure if slam poetry would go down well on YT either. Anyway, some things people have been asking for were more sociology things! And being inspired by all the Spooky Season stuff this week, I thought I'd explore the theory of "Ghostly Atmospheres" which isn't technically a sociology theory, it's actually a Geography one that I learned about in my honours Geography class (I can't even remember why I took this - I think it was something about one of the lecturers but anyway, the geography class was more like a social science class (I don't think I did amazing in it but this is something that stuck with me ever since).


So what are ghostly atmospheres? From my perspective, ghostly atmospheres are areas/spaces that feel "ghostly" and to me, the essay I wrote for this theory was one about the Red Zone in CHCH - for those of you who don't know, the red zone in CHCH is an area following the quakes that no one can ever build on again because it was so dangerous. My late grandparents lost their house and car the day of the 2011 quake and every time I drove past there, I just felt a ghostly presence, and always thought that it would be a good spot to film a zombie movie as it was always overcast when I went there/happened to drive through it and I associated it with the memories of lots of people losing their loved ones, homes, and other personal belongings and in turn, always got eerie vibes whenever I got out of the car in that area. Now thinking about it, I took a more of a sociological approach to whatever the essay Q was because that was my background and I think they were looking for more of a geo-spatial perspective but I passed the class so eh. I'm currently reading an article called "Ghostly Spatialities in Condominiums: Nuisance Law, Legal Geography, and Intercultural Chorology" - by scholar Mario Ricca (2017) which discusses how spaces (aka lived-in spaces by people) are what gives those spaces meaning. In interpreting that, I think that where people are, they give those places meaning. I'm also struggling to find more academic articles on "ghostly atmospheres" because google and google scholar keep leading me to "haunted places" like places that are said to be haunted by ghosts or apparations. Let's keep going though!


Ghost spaces are also urban spaces underused by the general public which is due to poor design, a lack of interestingness/entertainment, and a space that doesn't draw people to hang out in. It can also be to do with how safe an error feels - so maybe a ghost space could be an area that has a lower SES where more crime might occur or it could be a space where there's no public transport, making it harder to get to, or somewhere where there's a lot of pollution. What comes to mind right now are places like Chernobyl or Fukushima following their nuclear explosion disasters. Also, side note, as I write this, I now see where I went wrong in the geography class hahah. I wish that this blogging host site had a way to add in footnotes. There might be - I just haven't figured it out yet.


Anyway, back to these ghost spaces! A few other examples could be Port Arthur in Tasmania (a town in Tassie that had a 19th Century penal colony on it and is now a tourist attraction or maybe areas where there's a lot of homeless people or an area following a mass disaster (to link it back to the CHCH quakes - look at me being all sociological). I would also say places where mass shootings have happened - so a lot of schools in the USA would most likely feel super eerie too. Also a few other articles I've just briefly skim read today suggest that there are also ghost kitchens and ghost retail spaces - which I can definitely relate to this one as so many shops were boarded up in CHCH following the quakes and even following the covid pandemic, many shops are now boarded up in Melbourne that went bust. Next time you walk past a shop like this, practice some mindfulness and focus on how you feel while next to this shop - try it as an experiment. Then let me know how you feel!


This is shorter than I expected it to be but it did take me a while to write because I was researching at the same time. I'm not an expert on ghostly atmospheres and I'm WAY out of practice of academic writing, but I guess this blog is a bit more chill regarding it. The benefit of writing is you don't hear me going "Um, UM, UM" the whole time hahaha. I also wanted to touch on a few places that I feel are "ghostly atmospheres/spaces" or give off an eerie vibe. I've talked about this in previous posts but I thought it'd be good to make a list here:

  • The Red Zone, CHCH (as discussed above)

  • The river near my mum's house (if you know the one I'm referring too)

  • My old high school and surrounding suburbs (most likely due to the lower SES)

  • Altona North, Melbourne - specifically the beach

  • Tanunda, South Australia (one cemetery in particular)

  • Most of Auckland's CBD (idk why this one)

  • Also another one I can't explain, Point Cook but I've never been there but would often get spam calls spoofed from there so maybe that's why. I actually think it also has some ghost stuff there

That's all I can think of today. Maybe I'll update this list as I explore more of the world! But for today's question, I want to know, what's a place you've been to where you've just gotten really weird vibes from? Could be a park, a shopping centre, to even a car park, but it just gave you the shivers and you wanted to gap it out of there immediately. Let me know in the comments. I've listed mine above so won't post again here. But I definitely want to know. I am so interested in the creepy side of the world.


Ka kite,

Much love,

Ash xx

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Oct 30, 2023
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Wentworth Gaol in Southwest NSW felt weird but I think it was because I was all alone in the main cell block

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