| SCIENCE Friday, November 26, 1999 | ||
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Duchamp and Poincaré Renew an Old Acquaintance by Barry Cipra |
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Poincaré also wrote about non-Euclidean and four-dimensional geometry, and Duchamp's notes indicate that these ideas intrigued him. He especially liked the notion of getting three-dimensional perspective on four-dimensional objects, rather like the way a set of 2D representations, such as photographs taken from different angles, can be used to visualize 3D objects. Shearer thinks that these geometrical ideas influenced Duchamp's ready-mades--or, rather, his photographs of them, as most of the originals have been lost. She and colleagues have analyzed these photographs and concluded that the objects shown involve tricks of perception and perspective. The bicycle wheel, for example, was mounted on a deceptively ordinary kitchen stool--in fact, they claim, one of the stool's legs pointed awkwardly inward and its rungs didn't connect. Moreover, the wheel was not attached at its center point, so that it would have wobbled as it spun. Similarly, the researchers found that a photograph of the four-hook coat rack shows each hook from a different perspective. Either Duchamp bent the hooks, or he doctored the photograph--or both. By combining the different perspectives, Duchamp is giving more information than a single perspective would provide, albeit in a way that isn't immediately obvious. CONTINUED>> |
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