VV (20) The Xebec

[Dave Monroe]

See here ...

Henderson, Linda Dalrymple.  The Fourth Dimension
   and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art.
   Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1983.

And I believe this passage, which I found online, is
from Henderson's book; it's Henderson, at any rate
(well, except for the Gleizes quote) ...

"Beyond the three dimensions of Euclid we have added
another, the fourth dimension, which is to say the
figuration of space, the measure of infinite."
--Albert Gleizes 

"The fourth dimension was a highly popular concept in
the early 20th century and figured in the theoretical
underpinnings of nearly every Modern art movement. The
statement by the Cubist painter and theorist Albert
Gleizes quoted here brings together the two major
characteristics of the fourth dimension in early
Modern art theory: its primary, geometric orientation
as a higher spatial dimension, as well as its
metaphorical association with infinity and resultant
function as a new code name for the sublime. 

"The idea that space might have additional dimensions
had developed during the 19th century with the
emergence of n-dimensional geometries (geometries of
more than three dimensions). Both n-dimensional
geometries and the curved spaces of non-Euclidean
geometry encouraged recognition of the relativity of
human perception. The theme of the inadequacy of sense
perception was already present in popular literature
by the 1880s. Beyond the general resurgence of
idealist philosophy in the late 19th century, which
augmented this distrust of visual reality, discoveries
such as the X-ray (1895) provided scientific proof of
the limited range of visual perception, further
encouraging
speculation about alternative kinds of spaces.
However, it was not until the years around 1910 in
Paris that expressions of artistic interest in the
fourth dimension occurred. 

"With its roots in geometry, the fourth dimension was
not thought of as time itself -- a view that would
become dominant only after 1919 with the
popularization of Einstein’s theory of relativity.
Instead, it signified a higher geometric dimension, of
which our three-dimensional world might merely be a
section. The fourth dimension could thus serve as a
rationale for Cubist artists to reject such
three-dimensionally oriented techniques as one-point
perspective and the traditional modeling of figures.
If the Cubists sought to depict forms as they might
appear in four dimensions, other artists such as
Kazimir Malevich, Piet Mondrian, and Frantisek Kupka
interpreted the notion in more mystical terms and
found in the existence of an invisible, higher
dimensional reality support for the creation of
totally abstract art works. Often associated with the
evolution of 'cosmic consciousness,' the fourth
dimension in this view also embodied belief in
humankind’s potential to transcend present limitations
and in the need for new forms of language in art,
music, and literature."

http://english.ttu.edu/courses/5343/fourth.htm

http://www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/concept_FourthDimension.html

http://www.duke.edu/~acm6/academic/art/four-dim.htm

http://www.cvr.uci.edu/dzmura/4D/default.htm

Oh, and, hey, check these out as well ...

http://weberstudies.weber.edu/archive/Vol.%2014.1/14.1Henderson.htm

http://www.csuchico.edu/art/contrapposto/contrapposto00/pages/themecontent/ritcher197.html

And that's just the first few hits I got.  Always
something to be learned here @ Th' Pynchon-List ...

--- jbor <jbor at bigpond.com> wrote:
> 
> S. Stencil makes a couple of interesting comments on
> the topic of history: his rejected _Punch_ article
> entitled 'The Situation as an N-Dimensional
> Mishmash' which is quoted from at the bottom of p.
> 470 places its author very much in the same league
> with Nietzsche's perspectivism ...

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