Inscrutability: An Epistemological Experiment

Abstract

Through four different projects, this thesis explores the idea of dimensions of representation, a concept introduced by 20th century French philosopher Michel Foucault in his book The Order of Things. Foucault argues that the Classical episteme, which Foucault defines as the discourse surrounding knowledge-making that lasted from the 17th century to the 19th century, was determined by the idea of dimensions of representations. Dimensions of representations states that during the Classical episteme, knowledge was formulated by representations of the external world, such as through systems of classification, ordering, and relations, rather than through resemblance. The first project, Holes in the Sieve (2023) will address the problematics of classification through a infamous case in the history of paleoanthropology: the Piltdown Man. The second project, Contrapposto in Space (2024) addresses how representation has been instrumentalized in technoscience through space research. Finally, the last two projects, the Poem Box (2024) and Micropoetry (2025) posit a way forward at the limits of representation by engaging with semiotic theory. By engaging with language games, poetry opens up the possibility to deny the position of being knowable, allowing one to disappear into inscrutability.