4DTime.Space

1/7/2021

Elk Paauw

Masters Student in Visual and Critical Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

In giant cartoony bubble letters, it reads 4dtime.space!Picture

A black and white drawing of the author, Elk, wearing 3D glasses that glow in red and blue. His mouth hangs open, his hands shooting up in surprise to protect his face.

For my Master’s thesis research in Visual and Critical Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, I created an interactive webcomic on the philosophy of time (specifically Block Universe Theory, also known as four-dimensionalism or “worm theory”) through the lens of comics formalism. Through 4dtime.space, I explore various issues within four-dimensionalism, and expand upon them by creating new concepts such as the "spacetime sausage" and "corkscrew block universe.” I also connect the comics medium to string theory and multiple universe theory, as well as explore the ramifications of the comics medium as a "multiples medium" on issues of personal identity through time. The form of the website is in itself a block universe, where each section exists simultaneously and can be read in any order, and is currently live online. In the next section, I’ll walk you through the website with some excerpts for your reading pleasure...

Walkthrough
The form of the website is meant to re-create a 4D hyperobject in the form of a webcomic, where you can click on each section (like diving into a wormhole) where its long-scroll format mimics a world line that traces across the Block Universe of the site as a whole. You can read the sections in any order, because time is relative, and all occur simultaneously just as in real life.

PictureFig 1: On a white backdrop, 9 hand-drawn symbols are arranged three by three. The symbol in the middle, a Minkowski Spacetime diagram, has a blue bubble over it, with overlaid white text that says

Fig 1. Homepage Chapter Selection Screen

In the section in the upper right, entitled “The Fourth Dimension,” I discuss the history of four-dimensionalism, going back to antiquity, with a special focus on four-dimensionalism in surrealism, cubism, and abstract expressionism in the 1900s

Fig 2. “Corpus Hypercubus”

I create new concepts within four-dimensionalism, including the idea of a "spacetime sausage,” which better illustrates how time can be sliced into arbitrary chunks (like salami slices), but are still part of a single whole (the sausage itself) and relate it to the shape of our universe. I look at four-dimensionalism in geometry (especially the works of Hermann Minkowski and Rudy Rucker) and connect it to film theory, arguing that a reel of film can be seen as a block of 4D spacetime, where individual frames are slices of the greater whole.

Fig. 3: There is a squiggly gray line juxtaposed over a series of overlapping 2D planes, where each red dot on the gray line is mapped to each plane. A text bubble reads, each 'event' on a worldline occurs at a simultaneous succession of 'presents'. Hence, the 'hypersurface' of the present can be seen as fluid, constantly shifting. Next we see a strip of film laid flat. The same worldline cuts across the strip, and the red dots match up with each single frame. A line of text below this reads, Just as a film strip is made up of continuous individual frames which in sum create a reel.

Fig 3. from “Book As Block Universe”

4dtime.space culminates with my argument that comics as a medium express four-dimensionalist thought, in that panels can be considered slices of space-time that when stacked together in the form of a book of multiple pages create a four-dimensional block of spacetime (see fig. 4 & 5).

Fig. 4: Text reads, Just like in a film, each frame is a slice... (pictured are four blank frames in sequence) ...and together they make a block of spacetime! We see pictured the film reel, a book with a smiling face on it, and the overlapping frames enclosed in a cuboid. The book says, And just like in film, the thickness of the book is akin to the thickness of the reel!Picture

Fig. 4 and 5. from “Book as Block Universe” [click to enlarge]

When we apply this to a genre such as autobiographical comics, we can see the artist creating their own 4D block universe of the Self. I continue this line of thought to discuss multiple universe theory, applying it further to the Marvel/DC comics universes as well as comics in general as being innately a “multiples medium”, and connect my spacetime sausage theory to contemporary string theory (see fig. 6).

Fig. 5: A bubble reads, Let's think of a book as a spacetime sausage. Or, maybe a whole series. A block universe in and of itself. Pictured is a stack of several books all pushed together, hanging over a transparent cuboid that looks like a case one would have for a box set of books. Hanging mid-air, we see a comic book with a glowing line encircling it. Circled on the page and pulled out is a single panel, and a single page full of panels. A speech bubble reads: As we said in Zeno's Arrow [link], a slice of spacetime is always arbitrary. A panel could be a slice of a page, a page a slice of a book, or a book a slice of a series. Here we see the panel contained in the page, the page in the book, and the book contained in a stack of books, labelled volume 4 within a series of 9. A bubble reads: Each book creates a block universe where spacetime is denoted through the thickness in pages, where each page, every panel, entire books, and whole series all exist simultaneously. We see the rectangular cuboid containing a bunch of slices with a slice labelled NOW in red is pulled up from the rest. A bubble reads: The 'now' of the book is only the panel or page or volume you are reading at any given time. We see an eyeball hanging over three frames, reading from left to right: then, now, and later. The eye has a light cone coming out of it that only illuminates the frame labelled 'now'.Picture

Fig. 6: We see a book page with the author's face drawn on it. He asks, is a panel a 2-D brane? Is a page a 3-D brane? We see another floating page but Elk's face has been segmented into four panels. Next we see a dot and a line. Under the dot it reads, a dot, a 0D particle? Under the line, it reads A line, a 1D string? Then there's a big book with Elk's face on it, called Me #1, by Me, and he says: A book could be a 4-D brane, too, with a world volume extending into a higher-dimensional containing space. We see a bookshelf that the book could be going into that has other books on it. Elk-book says, If the universe is infinitely repeated as in the ekpyrotic model, which iteration is me? A text bubble reads, are there an infinite number of me's on other branes? Are there infinite universes without me's? Below this bubble we see a series of different books of Elk in alternate universes. Elk Man, Elk Boob, Elk in Space, and In Search of Lost Elk.Picture

Fig. 6, from “Book As Brane”

The work concludes by taking a look at ancient agrarian notions of cycles of time, where I define a new understanding of Block Universe Theory by delineating a "corkscrew block universe" where time flows forwards in a corkscrew motion, so as to bring together Block Universe Theory and the more classical Cyclic view of time. I also address fears of fatalism in Block Universe Theory by calling upon Friedrich Nietzsche's Eternal Return (fig. 7), and the notion of Amor Fati, or love of fate, which I explore through a reading of The Death of Superman (1992, fig. 8).

Fig. 7: A very detailed manga-like illustration of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche in black and white. He has big doe-like eyes that sparkle, and lilies surround him. He is wearing a suit and has his signature bushy mustache. An arrow points at the figure, and it says in big block letters: My best pal, Fred Nietzsche.

Fig 7. from “Corkscrew Block Universe”

Fig. 8: With a tattered Superman cape waving like a flag in the background, Elk is in the foreground holding Superman who has X's in his eyes and has his tongue sticking out. He's covered in cartoony-looking blood (it's not very gory). Elk is crying, saying: Just like in Death of Superman... we know he doesn't really stay dead, but it's still sad! And people will read it over and over, forever. I'm so sorry, Clark! You don't deserve this from your fans, but we do it because we love you!!Picture

Fig 8. from “Corkscrew Block Universe”

Greater Implications
In this work, I wanted to expand upon Scott McCloud’s chapter on time in Understanding Comics and Thierry Groensteen’s notion of the hyperframe from The System of Comics, as well as provide a more academically rigorous and less mystical response to Nick Sousanis’ Unflattening. Tying in my personal interest in existentialism, geometry, and my research in the Philosophy of Time, I have created new and unique solutions to traditional problems within Block Universe Theory (such as the feeling of time passing, grappling hard determinism/fatalism, as well as the conflict between subjective versus objective views of time) using comics formalism. While I could add infinite content to 4dtime.space, particularly in exploring examples of how comics use of panel and page layout can (and do) subvert standard conceptions of time (which I touch on briefly in the section “Book As Block Universe” where I discuss braiding in Watchmen as well as the vast, infinite time found in single-panel comics such as Family Circus), in the future I aim to further my study of what I call a “Trans Metaphysics”, of which 4dtime.space is a first installment.

Works Cited

Aristotle. Physics. http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/physics.6.vi.html. Classic Department, MIT. Accessed 16 Apr. 2020.

Dali, Salvador. Crucifixion (Corpus Hypercubus). 1954, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/488880. The Met Fifth Avenue, Gallery 913.

Galison, Peter Louis. “Minkowski’s Space-Time: From Visual Thinking to the Absolute World.” Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences, vol. 10, Jan. 1979, pp. 85–121. DOI.org (Crossref), doi:10.2307/27757388.

Groensteen, Thierry, et al. System of Comics, The. English. 1st edition, Univ Pr Of Mississippi, 2009.

Gubser, Steven S. The Little Book of String Theory. 2011. Open WorldCat, http://www.vlebooks.com/vleweb/product/openreader?id=none&isbn=9781400834433.

Jurgens, Dan. The Death of Superman. New York, NY: DC Comics, 1993.

Keane, Bil. Family Circus. King Features, 1960-ongoing.

McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics. Reprint, William Morrow, an imprint of Harper Collins Publishers, 2017.

Moore, Alan, and Dave Gibbons. Watchmen. New York: Warner Books, 1987.

Nietzsche, Friedrich. Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Viking, 1954.

Paauw, Elk. “4dtime.Space.” 4dtime.Space: Comics in the Fourth Dimension, May 2020, https://4dtime.space.

Rucker, Rudy. The Fourth Dimension: A Guided Tour of the Higher Universe. Houghton Mifflin, 1996.

Sousanis, Nick. Unflattening. Harvard University Press, 2015.

Elk Paauw is a self-published Seattle comics artist and queer transdude (he/him/his pronouns), currently working on a sailing travelogue called Foss Follies set in the South Sound. He performs regularly as half of the cartoon band Spooky Action, and hosts a monthly international animated children's film series called Saturday Morning Cartoons at SIFF Cinema Uptown. Originally from Seattle, Paauw is currently in Chicago getting a master's in Visual and Critical Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

4DTime.Space

Elk Paauw

About

Archives

Categories