Looking at Separation of Space from Time

Concepts of Illusion and Spatial Dimension in the Moving Image

This investigation examines the vision of additional dimensions of space and time and was this a ‘space’ perceived by others outside mathematical concepts. Science and mathematics, abstract, and reduce concepts of space and time as they are based in empiricism and syllogism. This reduction has managed to sever space with time so uncomfortably that science has to constantly reformulate and incorporate time with space. However studies in the humanities strive to see if space is a discrete entity from time. The study of space is problematic in itself as a definition of space still does not clearly exist and the field is investigated by so many different disciplines the overall concept becomes lost in the process of ‘modelling’ or definition.
History shows us three fundamental shifts of the development in the west of the perception of space. From Euclid’s geometry to Brunelleschie’s development of the vanishing point and 3D linear perspective to the mathematics of Rieman that found parallel lines could cross which ultimately progressed to the development of space-time.

If we look at vanishing points in linear perspective it is feasible to progress from a two point perspective up to a six point perspective, however here everything is reduced to a sphere.
Looking at this slide we understand 2 point perspective, if it is taken a stage further and two vanishing points are included on the long sides it would produce 4 point perspective. Taken further again it could become 5 point perspective where everything becomes circular. If taken further yet again with the vanishing point placed centrally on the other side it becomes 6 point perspective and everything becomes spherical.

It would appear a dichotomy has arisen in the language we use for visual imaging and space. This has been born through looking at the terms of dimensionality and how they apply to both the humanities and mathematics.

We feel we understand the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd dimension and perspective, however the 4th dimension becomes something that appears to have fluid definition. Mathematically the 4th dimension is defined by adding time to the third dimension, and becomes space-time, where as in art, the 4th dimension can be referred to ‘seeing the other side’ or the side we cannot see. However this is not the 4 point linear perspective described. Dimensionality may be an incorrect way of describing and there may be a case for saying dimensionality does not equal perspective or this could just be a matter of semantics depending from which faculty these words are being used. The differences between dimensionality and perspective maybe subtle and the differences remain solely between different disciplines. Dimensionality would appear to be mathematical whilst perspective belongs to the humanities.
Whilst in the lower dimensions the two terms don’t create a problem the discrepancy shows in the higher dimensions and perspective.
Is this description of the fourth dimension, 3D linear perspective with time added, adequate or is there a more fluent way and a reality way to see and describe this further dimension?
Hyperbolic space also considered the 4th dimension exists as a negative space in mathematics but as a lived space to biologists and assessable to cognitive knowledge.

Lefebvre questions the production of space and how space now exerts power with loss of all innocence. This questioning could be levelled at the development of space-time and how it has become a powerful tool of mathematics.

Power can also be seen in fashion as it culls space for itself in voluminous layers upon layers, and pleats, in textiles demanding space and creating volume which if it isn’t acquired in the fabric, it may be acquired on the page.

Lefebvre goes onto state how space is commodified using nature. As silica is taken as natures raw material and turned into glass it symbolicaly reproduces space through its reflection. Today’s new buildings with an outer skin of glass, command what lays beyond their perimeters. They hold not only themselves up to be viewed but also steal their neighbour, incorporating them into their own fabric as symbolic image.

Optical
We know our mind is always correcting and adjusting what we see and an example of this being the bottom shape in Jastrow is the same size as the top shape or in Titchner the red dot is equal to the blue dot or that Poggendorff’s bar is not split into two pieces but continuous and goes through.
There maybe a time dependency, in that interval it takes from the eye to the brain to convert the apparent discrepancy and bring it back to its ’reality’ of correctness. It is this gap or this margin on the edge of understanding that may yield an instance of insight.
In the moving image by which I mean film, I am looking for illusion that is optical rather than through filming method or set and looking for that which would not normally be considered.

Frame and Time Frame
To try and achieve this moment of none understanding some of the conventionalities of how the moving image is displayed have been changed, consideration is from the flat screen to the curved surface. Both convex and concave surfaces are considered and this is taken a stage further by breaking the surface up into multiple parts in an attempt of trying to break through the mind set from previous knowledge
By removing the conventional surface of the screen for film it is hoped that a state similar to the artist using a mirror or glass is stimulated. A different symbolic representation which removes the cognitive image and gives the mind the momentary opening before adjustment takes over, and returns to familiarity.
As space-time forms a frozen fabric so does the screen, information is still yielded but it is stilled, were holography may slip and slide with its coherent light. The hard stuff of what we see, the toaster, the plug, the wind turbine all look much the same to each of us, however how much of this can we say is hard wired, but the soft stuff – the design of the toaster, the placement of the wind turbine appears different and subjective to us as we begin to see the world differently.
The footstep is through different times and space. With construction time from 13th century to today. Here the stride is over time but it also makes a path through time.
The through time and space, is that of geological time as the step can be on contemporary strata, or that of past centuries, or millennium when granite, sand, marble was formed.

In summary this paper has suggested some of the visual aspects of space and that there should be a possibility of creating a gap or interval to allow new insight towards understanding. That language may exert unwitting control and by default, time has become secondary. 28.02.08

Table

Captured Space

Projection

Foot Steps Over Geological Strata Forming Present Time Bands With Eons
Duplicate projection on concave and convex screen with smooth and rough surface.

Index