Drilling Breaking

In the book Breaking the Surface: an Art/Archaeology of Prehistoric Architecture, Doug Bailey challenged the ways that archaeologists think about and write about the past, with particular reference to the pit-huts of the European Neolithic. The book attempts a radical re-orientation of how archaeologists could think about the past through juxtapositions with contemporary art, linguistic anthropology, the philosophy of perforation, and the human visual perception and conception of space.

In the art/archaeology, however, it is not enough to write a book, to make a coherent textual statement, or to argue a position with logic and rhetorical tools and maneuvers. In art/archaeology, the goal is to make work, to go beyond the traditional and standard: to “let go beyond” (Bailey 2014). To these ends, Doug took the printed Breaking book, and drilled holes through the book, front to back.

The argument in Breaking the Surface is that making holes in things matters. By doing (and not saying or writing), the drilled book presents this core argument in Doug’s theme in a fuller and more vital way.

For further information

• Bailey, D.W. 2014. Art // archaeology // art: letting-go beyond. In I. Russell and A. Cochrane (eds), Art and Archaeology: Collaborations, Conversations, Criticisms, pp. 231-50. New York: Springer-Kluwer.

• Bailey, D.W. 2018. Breaking the Surface: an Art/Archaeology of Prehistoric Architecture. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (order directly from OUP: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/breaking-the-surface-9780190611880?lang=en&cc=us

• For reviews see the following:

  • Thomas, J. 2019. Review of DW Bailey, “Breaking the Surface” in Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 85": 123-5.

• contact: dwbailey@sfsu.edIu