SCHEMATIZING (29)
By:
March 9, 2024
One in a series of posts via which HILOBROW’S Josh Glenn will attempt to depict the intellectual and emotional highs and lows of developing a semiotic schema. Series dedicated to its target audience of one: Malcolm Evans.
In mathematics, transformations equivalent to what was later known as “Lorentz transformations” in various dimensions were discussed in the 19th century in relation to the theory of quadratic forms, hyperbolic geometry, Möbius geometry, and sphere geometry. In physics, Lorentz transformations became known at the beginning of the 20th century, when it was discovered that they exhibit the symmetry of Maxwell’s equations. Subsequently, they became fundamental to all of physics, because they formed the basis of special relativity in which they exhibit the symmetry of Minkowski spacetime, making the speed of light invariant between different inertial frames. (These transformations were brought into their modern form by Poincaré, in 1905, who gave them the name of Lorentz.)
In Varo’s 1963 painting, one of many she created that depict scientists at work, an 18th-century astronomer who is somehow at the same time a young Einstein appears to have discovered the special theory of relativity. How do we know? Because to depict the so-called Lorentz transformations, which are at the heart of Einstein’s revelation, one would typically draw a standard graph with X and Y axes, then rotate the graph 30 degrees to show how time and space shift for different states of motion. As we can see, this is precisely what is happening to this scientist’s study / laboratory. Its X and Y axes have been — partially, holographically, surrealistically — rotated 30 degrees. Which has created a very cool pattern, among / within the floorboards.
That’s not all that’s happening here! An orrery (a mechanical model of the solar system), this one depicting the Earth and Moon, has broken free of its base and now floats in the air. The scientist waves his elegant fingers around the floating object, like a cheesy magician doing a trick. Presto!
The semiotician who develops a working semiosphere model is all of these things: scientist, astronomer, geometer, mathematician … and cheesy magician, too. I dig his expression: intense.
MORE FURSHLUGGINER THEORIES BY JOSH GLENN: SCHEMATIZING | IN CAHOOTS | JOSH’S MIDJOURNEY | POPSZTÁR SAMIZDAT | VIRUS VIGILANTE | TAKING THE MICKEY | WE ARE IRON MAN | AND WE LIVED BENEATH THE WAVES | IS IT A CHAMBER POT? | I’D LIKE TO FORCE THE WORLD TO SING | THE ARGONAUT FOLLY | THE PERFECT FLANEUR | THE TWENTIETH DAY OF JANUARY | THE REAL THING | THE YHWH VIRUS | THE SWEETEST HANGOVER | THE ORIGINAL STOOGE | BACK TO UTOPIA | FAKE AUTHENTICITY | CAMP, KITSCH & CHEESE | THE UNCLE HYPOTHESIS | MEET THE SEMIONAUTS | THE ABDUCTIVE METHOD | ORIGIN OF THE POGO | THE BLACK IRON PRISON | BLUE KRISHMA | BIG MAL LIVES | SCHMOOZITSU | YOU DOWN WITH VCP? | CALVIN PEEING MEME | DANIEL CLOWES: AGAINST GROOVY | DEBATING IN A VACUUM | PLUPERFECT PDA | SHOCKING BLOCKING.