At the turn of the 20th century, the great debate over absolute and perceived space raged, ranging from Einstein’s famous thought experiments to the perspective driven art of the time. The advent of several new technologies, such as the automobile, decreased the perceived space between objects, while people migrated to large cities, further decreasing this distance.
Jane Autsen’s Emma shows how limited travel was in the 1800’s. The only two modes of transportation were either walking or carriage (Trains existed, but an extensive rail infrastructure had not yet been established). While considered a snails pace by today’s standards, the carriage enabled the characters to travel from their hometown of Highbury, near
These technologies – cars, trains and planes, effectively decrease the perceived distance between people: a three hour walk becomes a fifteen minute drive. This combination of decreased travel time and long distance, high speed travel is what leads to the decrease in perceived distance. This leads, as Kern writes, to questions about how humans perceive the world around them.
Stephen Kern discusses the concept of relativity as it pertains to space, referencing Einstein’s theory of general relativity several times. The question arises whether or not animals and humans experience the same absolute space, or if the perceived space, and its properties, vary from species to species. A strong argument is made for the relativistic approach, citing the fact that humans have the canals per ear, giving us the ability to sense our position and orientation in three dimensional space, while other animals have only two or one canal per ear. On the other side of the argument, the amoeba is cited. It can only move in two dimensional space, meaning it experiences very little of the absolute space in the world around it, culminating with the simple statement: Just because the single celled amoeba cannot see or detect the stars, does not mean that they do not exist.
This spatial argument extends into mathematics with geometry. Euclidian geometries are based upon human physiology, relying on the correlation between the negative and positive side of an axis and the left and right side of the human body. The symmetry of the coordinate plane follows the symmetry of the body. This is used as an example to show how humans interpret the world around us based on our perception of space. This perception is used in the art of the time as well. Images of the same moment in time, but from different angles, are used to convey meaning.
Works Cited:
Kern, Stephen. The Culture of Time and Space. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2003. Print.
I find it interesting that you bring up perceived distance varies with travel speed.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the carriage allowed people in the 19th century to visit families, but compared to the automobile, it doesn't have as much mobility. Even though Emma's sister and brother-in-law only live 16 miles away, they can visit maybe once or twice a year and nowadays that's not the case because people have cars and motorcycles and can often visit relatives 16 miles away once or twice a week.
ReplyDelete