Hyperspace by Michio Kaku, Robert O'Keefe Page B
Authors: Michio Kaku, Robert O'Keefe
Ads: Link
literary circles, the avant garde, and the thoughts of the general public, affecting trends in art, literature, and philosophy. The new branch of philosophy, called Theosophy, was deeply influenced by higher dimensions.
On the one hand, serious scientists regretted this development because the rigorous results of Riemann were now being dragged through tabloid headlines. On the other hand, the popularization of the fourth dimension had a positive side. Not only did it make the advances in mathematics available to the general public, but it also served as a metaphor that could enrich and cross-fertilize cultural currents.
Art historian Linda Dalrymple Henderson, writing in
The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art
, elaborates on this and argues that the fourth dimension crucially influenced the development of Cubism and Expressionism in the art world. She writes that “it was among the Cubists that the first and most coherent art theory based on the new geometries was developed.” 4 To the avant garde, the fourth dimension symbolized the revolt against the excesses of capitalism. They saw its oppressive positivism and vulgar materialism as stifling creative expression. The Cubists, for example, rebelled against the insufferable arrogance of the zealots of science whom they perceived as dehumanizing the creative process.
Figure 3.3. One scene in the Bayeux Tapestry depicts frightened English troops pointing to an apparition in the sky (Halley’s comet). The figures are flat, as in most of the art done in the Middle Ages. This signified that God was omnipotent. Pictures were thus drawn two dimensionally. (Giraudon/Art Resource)
The avant garde seized on the fourth dimension as their vehicle. On the one hand, the fourth dimension pushed the boundaries of modern science to their limit. It was more scientific than the scientists. On the other hand, it was mysterious. And flaunting the fourth dimension tweaked the noses of the stiff, know-it-all positivists. In particular, this took the form of an artistic revolt against the laws of perspective.
In the Middle Ages, religious art was distinctive for its deliberate lack of perspective. Serfs, peasants, and kings were depicted as though they were flat, much in the way children draw people. These paintings largely reflected the church’s view that God was omnipotent and could therefore see all parts of our world equally. Art had to reflect his point of view, so the world was painted two dimensionally. For example, the famous Bayeux Tapestry ( Figure 3.3 ) depicts the superstitious soldiers of King Harold II of England pointing in frightened wonder at an ominous comet soaring overhead in April 1066, convinced that it is an omen of impending defeat. (Six centuries later, the same comet would be christened Halley’s comet.) Harold subsequently lost the crucial Battle of Hastings to William the Conqueror, who was crowned the king of England, and a new chapter in English history began. However, the Bayeux Tapestry, like other medieval works of art, depicts Harold’s soldiers’ arms and faces as flat, as though a plane of glass had been placed over their bodies, compressing them against the tapestry.
Figure 3.4. During the Renaissance, painters discovered the third dimension. Pictures were painted with perspective and were viewed from the vantage point of a single eye, not God’s eye. Note that all the lines in Leonardo da Vinci’s fresco
The Last Supper
converge to a point at the horizon. (Bettmann Archive)
Renaissance art was a revolt against this flat God-centered perspective, and man-centered art began to flourish, with sweeping landscapes and realistic, three-dimensional people painted from the point of view of a person’s eye. In Leonardo da Vinci’s powerful studies on perspective, we see the lines in his sketches vanishing into a single point on the horizon. Renaissance art reflected the way the eye viewed the world, from the singular
On the one hand, serious scientists regretted this development because the rigorous results of Riemann were now being dragged through tabloid headlines. On the other hand, the popularization of the fourth dimension had a positive side. Not only did it make the advances in mathematics available to the general public, but it also served as a metaphor that could enrich and cross-fertilize cultural currents.
Art historian Linda Dalrymple Henderson, writing in
The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art
, elaborates on this and argues that the fourth dimension crucially influenced the development of Cubism and Expressionism in the art world. She writes that “it was among the Cubists that the first and most coherent art theory based on the new geometries was developed.” 4 To the avant garde, the fourth dimension symbolized the revolt against the excesses of capitalism. They saw its oppressive positivism and vulgar materialism as stifling creative expression. The Cubists, for example, rebelled against the insufferable arrogance of the zealots of science whom they perceived as dehumanizing the creative process.
Figure 3.3. One scene in the Bayeux Tapestry depicts frightened English troops pointing to an apparition in the sky (Halley’s comet). The figures are flat, as in most of the art done in the Middle Ages. This signified that God was omnipotent. Pictures were thus drawn two dimensionally. (Giraudon/Art Resource)
The avant garde seized on the fourth dimension as their vehicle. On the one hand, the fourth dimension pushed the boundaries of modern science to their limit. It was more scientific than the scientists. On the other hand, it was mysterious. And flaunting the fourth dimension tweaked the noses of the stiff, know-it-all positivists. In particular, this took the form of an artistic revolt against the laws of perspective.
In the Middle Ages, religious art was distinctive for its deliberate lack of perspective. Serfs, peasants, and kings were depicted as though they were flat, much in the way children draw people. These paintings largely reflected the church’s view that God was omnipotent and could therefore see all parts of our world equally. Art had to reflect his point of view, so the world was painted two dimensionally. For example, the famous Bayeux Tapestry ( Figure 3.3 ) depicts the superstitious soldiers of King Harold II of England pointing in frightened wonder at an ominous comet soaring overhead in April 1066, convinced that it is an omen of impending defeat. (Six centuries later, the same comet would be christened Halley’s comet.) Harold subsequently lost the crucial Battle of Hastings to William the Conqueror, who was crowned the king of England, and a new chapter in English history began. However, the Bayeux Tapestry, like other medieval works of art, depicts Harold’s soldiers’ arms and faces as flat, as though a plane of glass had been placed over their bodies, compressing them against the tapestry.
Figure 3.4. During the Renaissance, painters discovered the third dimension. Pictures were painted with perspective and were viewed from the vantage point of a single eye, not God’s eye. Note that all the lines in Leonardo da Vinci’s fresco
The Last Supper
converge to a point at the horizon. (Bettmann Archive)
Renaissance art was a revolt against this flat God-centered perspective, and man-centered art began to flourish, with sweeping landscapes and realistic, three-dimensional people painted from the point of view of a person’s eye. In Leonardo da Vinci’s powerful studies on perspective, we see the lines in his sketches vanishing into a single point on the horizon. Renaissance art reflected the way the eye viewed the world, from the singular
Similar Books
