RE: [-empyre-] multi-perspectival / cultural hegemony of space

["Jim Andrews" <jim@vispo.com>]

hi john,

the space we walk around in every day is whatever it is. pretty mysterious stuff. euclidean and
non-euclidean geometries are models of space. maps are not the territory, as we know. maybe
there are fat creatures several light years in diameter that have non-euclidean intuition. i
wonder if they're on any lists? because that scale of things seems to be where the non-euclidean
turns into the quotidian. or maybe with very fast beasties that travel at some significant
proportion of the speed of light.

i suspect that 'seeing 4d space' is not so much a matter of actually seeing it as knowing its
properties well enough that one can imagine how things change and look from various
perspectives, sort of like being able to play chess without looking at the board, which is of
course possible. 3(r)d eye stuff.

it's true that what we're looking at at the moment is a monitor that is flat and is programmed
with euclidean space very much in mind. but did you check out that durieu piece? there's an
intelligable space made very imaginative via a complex mapping. Nice puns in the title, too:
"Oeil Complex", the complex of eyes, the reference to complex analysis and i.

i think that the use to artists of non-euclidean geometries and godelian philosophies and so on
is mainly to become a fat creature several light years in diameter but to phone home frequently.
to not play by the book, anyway.

Poemy poems in space:
http://vispo.com/writings/poems/alice.htm
http://vispo.com/writings/SeveralNumbersThroughtheLyric/TheMeetingPlaceII.pdf

the 'cultural hegemony' of euclidean space will probably not be challenged soon by the fatties,
it's true. just the 'intellectual hegemony' maybe.

ja