A 4ª dimensão na cultura de massas: Flatland

Ilustração de Flatland: o narrador, um bidimensional quadrado, representando o unidimensional país das linhas, que visitou em sonhos

Stranger. Have you felt me enough by this time? Are you not introduced to me yet?

I. Most illustrious Sir, excuse my awkwardness, which arises not from ignorance of the usages of polite society, but from a little surprise and nervousness, consequent on this somewhat unexpected visit. And I beseech you to reveal my indiscretion to no one, and especially not to my Wife. But before your Lordship enters into further communications, would he deign to satisfy the curiosity of one who would gladly know whence his Visitor came?

Stranger. From Space, from Space, Sir: whence else?

I. Pardon me, my Lord, but is not your Lordship already in Space, your Lordship and his humble servant, even at this moment?

Stranger. Pooh! what do you know of Space? Define Space.

I. Space, my Lord, is height and breadth indefinitely prolonged. Stranger. Exactly: you see you do not even know what Space is. You think it is of Two Dimensions only; but I have come to announce to you a Third - height, breadth, and length.

I. Your Lordship is pleased to be merry. We also speak of length and height, or breadth and thickness, thus denoting Two Dimensions by four names.

Stranger. But I mean not only three names, but Three Dimensions.

I. Would your Lordship indicate or explain to me in what direction is the Third Dimension, unknown to me?

Stranger. I came from it. It is up above and down below.

I. My Lord means seemingly that it is Northward and Southward.

Stranger. I mean nothing of the kind. I mean a direction in which you cannot look, because you have no eye in your side.

I. Pardon me, my Lord, a moment's inspection will convince your Lordship that I have a perfect luminary at the juncture of two of my sides.

Stranger. Yes: but in order to see into Space you ought to have an eye, not on your Perimeter, but on your side, that is, on what you would probably call your inside; but we in Spaceland should call it your side.

I. An eye in my inside! An eye in my stomach! Your Lordship Jests.

Stranger. I am in no jesting humour. I tell you that I come from Space, or, since you will not understand what Space means, from the Land of Three Dimensions whence I but lately looked down upon your Plane which you call Space forsooth. From that position of advantage I discerned all that you speak of as solid (by which you mean "enclosed on four sides"), your houses, your churches, your very chests and safes, yes even your insides and stomachs, all lying open and exposed to my view.

I. Such assertions are easily made, my Lord.

Stranger. But not easily proved, you mean. But I mean to prove mine. When I descended here, I saw your four Sons, the Pentagons, each in his apartment, and your two Grandsons the Hexagons; I saw your youngest Hexagon remain a while with you and then retire to his room, leaving you and your Wife alone. I saw your Isosceles servants, three in number, in the kitchen at supper, and the little Page in the scullery. Then I came here, and how do you think I came?

I. Through the roof, I suppose.

Stranger. Not so. Your roof, as you know very well, has been recently repaired, and has no aperture by which even a Woman could penetrate. I tell you I come from Space. Are you not convinced by what I have told you of your children and household?

Edwin A. Abbott (1838-1926), Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, London, Seely & Co., 1884

Encontram-se muitas outras publicações "online" de Flatland. Destaco o fac-simile (em vários formatos) oferecido pelo "Internet Archive" e a tradução portuguesa, a descarregar ("download") a partir de um "site" de partilha de ficheiros (esnips).

Clicando no título desta entrada ("post"), tem-se acesso a um abrangente artigo, relacionando a 4ª dimensão com as artes, a ciência e a ficção científica. Quarta dimensão, movimentos espiritualistas e obras artísticas são sumarizados por Roann Barris em The Fourth Dimension and Theosophy: A Summary of Key Ideas (em pdf).

A utilização da tetradimensionalidade pelo Futurismo, em especial por Boccioni, posta em relação com a cultura filosófica (sobretudo Henri Bergson) e científica da época, é explorada em Mark Antliff, "The Fourth Dimension and Futurism: A Politicized Space", The Art Bulletin, December 2000.

As referências de Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) à 4ª dimensão têm sido objecto de diversas reflexões. É possível encontrar muitas "online":

Jerrold Seigel, The Private Worlds of Marcel Duchamp. Desire, Liberation, and the Self in Modern Culture, Berkeley-Los Angeles-Oxford, University of California Press, 1997, sobretudo pp. 99-106

Josep Perelló, "Poincaré i Duchamp: Encontre a la Quarta Dimensió", Artnodes, Juliol de 2005 (em pdf)

Ronda Roland Shearer, Marcel Duchamp's Impossible Bed and Other "Not" Readymade Objects: A Possible Route of Influence From Art To Science / Part II

Roberto Giunti, "The Bachelor Stripped Bare by Cabri Geometre, Even", na revista Tout-Fait (2007), onde mais informação sobre o tema poderá ser encontrada (por exemplo, buscando "dimension").

Uma busca na internet facilmente multiplicará estas referências bibliográficas.

Para ver mexer o "Grand Verre" (actualizando o seu movimento virtual), visite-se Making Sense of Marcel Duchamp e clique-se sobre a obra, no ano de 1923. Jean Suquet, em "LE GRAND VERRE: Visite Guidée" (Paris, l'Échoppe, 1992, versão "online" na Tout-Fait), guia-nos pela sua leitura do "Grand Verre".

Sobre a 4ª dimensão em Malevich (1878-1935), outro dos seus mais constantes cultores, veja-se Kazimir Malevitch, Écrits, Paris, Ed. Lebovici, 1986, prefácio, selecção e tradução para francês de A. Nakov (existe no C.D. do Ar.Co com a cota 7 MAL 01).

Kazimir Malevich (1878-1935), Realismo Pictórico. Rapaz com Mochila - Massas de Cor na Quarta Dimensão, 1915, óleo sobre tela, 71.1 x 44.5 cm, MoMA, Nova Iorque

"Alles Ständische und Stehende verdampft, alles Heilige wird entweiht"

Joseph Paxton (1803-1865), "Palácio de Cristal", 1851. Fotografia de c. 1928

"All fixed, fast frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his real condition of life and his relations with his kind".

Karl Marx (1818-1883), Friedrich Engels (1820-1895), Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei [Manifesto do Partido Comunista], Londres, 21 de Fevereiro de 1848. Tradução inglesa de Samuel Moore, 1888

"There are no limits in nature, and neither can there be in a work of art. You would thus obtain the atmosphere that sorrounds the figure, the color that animates it, and the perspective that puts it in its place.
When I do a portrait, I cannot limit it to the lines of the head since this head belongs to a body; it is in an environment that has an influence on it, it makes part of a whole I cannot suppress.
(...) Nothing is material in space."

Medardo Rosso (1858-1928), citado por Edmond Claris, De l'Impression en Sculpture, Paris, Editions de La Nouvelle Revue, 1902. Tradução no catálogo Medardo Rosso, Düsseldorf, Richter Verlag, s.d [2004], pág. 126 (existe no C.D.)

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), "El Aficionado Sorgues / El Torero", 1912, óleo sobre tela, 135 x 82 cm, Museu de Arte de Basileia

Cruzamentos em 2008

Marcel Broodthaers (1924-1976), Journal d'un Voyage Utopique, 1973, offset, tinta sobre papel, 51 x 38 cm (cada um dos elementos do díptico)

Inicia-se, hoje, um novo semestre do curso "Cruzamentos". No sótão do Ar.Co, no número 18 da Rua de Santiago, em Lisboa, às Segundas e Quartas, entre as 21 e as 23 horas. De 3 de Março a 25 de Junho de 2008; 64 horas lectivas.

O curso irá atravessar diferentes práticas artísticas contemporâneas, procurando ligações entre a pintura, a escultura, a arquitectura, o design, a música, a fotografia, o cinema e o video - com esporádicas e eventuais incursões pela literatura, a dança e o teatro. Procurar-se-á que as ligações estabelecidas sejam, em primeiro lugar, relevantes para a compreensão de um período de tempo específico.

Recomenda-se a familiarização com a barra lateral de "links" e a visita ao "blog" do curso "A Arte Moderna".

A bibliografia irá sendo referida ao longo do semestre. Deverá, no entanto, consultar-se a bibligrafia do (outro) curso "A Arte Moderna", a etiqueta "bibliografias" (ver a barra lateral de links) e alguns recursos cibernéticos:

Donald Kuspit, A Critical History of 20th-Century Art, Artnet, 2005-06

Catherine Costes, Un Dialogue Féccond, SCÉRÉN

From Here To Modernity, BBC/The Open University

Nos Dossiers Pédagogiques, do Centre Pompidou, encontra-se muita informação relevante (em francês e em inglês). Seleccionei alguns dos dossiês e apresento-os em três grupos:

1) Alguns dos movimentos artísticos do século XX:

Le Cubisme

Futurisme, Rayonnisme, Orphisme

La naissance de l'art abstrait

Dada

L'Art surréaliste

La Révolution surréaliste

Pop Art

Le Nouveau Réalisme

Le Minimalisme

L'Antiforme

Arte Povera

Art conceptuel

Le mouvement des images

Sons & lumières. Une histoire du son dans l'art du 20e siècle

Tendances de la photographie contemporaine

Africa Remix. L'art contemporain d'un continent

2) Alguns temas mais abrangentes e de interesse mais directo para o curso:

Les oeuvres et leur contexte. 1906-1960

Où en est la peinture ? De 1960 à aujourd'hui

Big Bang. Dossier Subversion

Le corps dans l'oeuvre

L'objet dans l'art du XXe siècle

L'oeuvre et son espace

A la frontière du design et des arts plastiques

Statut et Pouvoirs du Narrateur - Cinéma

Pour une chorégraphie des regards - Danse contemporaine

3) Alguns personagens da cultura contemporânea:

Pablo Picasso

Vassily Kandinsky

Constantin Brancusi

Marcel Duchamp

Luis Buñuel - Un Chien Andalou

Alberto Giacometti

Jean Dubuffet

Robert Rauschenberg

Yves Klein

Samuel Beckett

Roland Barthes

Richard Rogers

Jean-Luc Godard

Victor Erice - Abbas Kiarostami (correspondência)

Philippe Starck

O "blog" do departamento de Cinema/Imagem em Movimento do Ar.Co. oferece uma excelente colecção de textos teóricos que deve ser explorada.

Imprescindível será a visita ao C.D. do Ar.Co. (o Centro de Documentação) e a consulta dos vários materiais aí disponíveis, em livros, periódicos, CDs, DVDs e outros formatos.