“Reason and science often follow separate paths,” writes Paul Feyerabend in Wider den Methodenzwang (Against Method, 1975), where he also suggests that progress be encouraged through “playful anarchism.” Following this advice, Brian Conley’s exhibition “Decipherment of Linear X” gives evidence of a broad research project and questions any claim to absolute knowledge inherent in epistemological methodology.
This project’s points of departure are small pieces of wood, found in New York State, that bear what appear to be traces of the semantic structures of an undiscovered language. On the basis of the hypothesis that he had uncovered evidence of an early Native American writing system and culture, Conley began research into these impressive calligraphic markings, which resemble the ancient Mycenaean script now known as Linear B. The artist declared the location at which he found the wood pieces an archaeological site and catalogued the discovery in meticulous detail. When it was revealed that the markings were actually the random indentations left by a wood-eating beetle culture, Conley employed his academic knowledge of semiotics comically, nudging the project toward the fluid border between fact and fiction. By interpreting the traces as linguistic artifacts, he challenges cognition research and posits the possibility of an insect writing system. The exhibition presents documentation, ceramic tablets with impressions of the artifacts, a table strewn with reading material, and an audio recording of the holes in the wood created by beetles, which Conley has invited experts from relevant academic disciplines to analyze. Their essays make the accompanying publication, which also includes passages from the writings of Jorge Luis Borges, Charles Darwin, communications researcher David Serlin, information-science specialist Luc Steels, and others, an important part of the exhibition. These texts reflect Conley’s canny investigation into forms of scientific reflexivity.
Translated from German by Jane Brodie.
