Preface

For this essay I was planning to write about “Mathematics and Art” but I just felt that would be more appropriate for next year due to the limitations of word counting. Narrowing the subject more and more I tried to find something that would suit my desires (art and science) and meet the university requirements.
After going through all the questions I could choose for this dissertation’s topic I decided to investigate an influent idea in the 20th century art history (the fourth dimension) within the context of a couple of very influent texts: the Green and the White Boxes.
The fourth dimension is the main subject of my studio practice and it was also through Duchamp (Fig.1 and Fig.10) I first knew about its importance in the art world. This was crucial to make this subject more relevant then any other. I also felt I would regret if I didn’t write this thesis about Duchamp because he is one of the most influent artists in my work and it was also with him I learned the difference between “context” and “content”.
What I wanted to achieve with this investigation was a deeper understanding on Duchamp’s notes and how the fourth dimension influenced the beginning of conceptual art. As a bonus I would inform my studio practice and appreciate the evolution of a scientific myth and concept through time. All the intellectual and artistic “adventures” I’ve been living with Mathew Dalgleish and Ian Hays about Duchamp and extra dimensions would be pushed forwards by these two boxes analysis.
It may seem silly but after writing this essay I felt the need to write notes for my own work too. I realized how crucial that can be for people to understand the rules of irrational intuition. As consequence I started writing my own notes using Leonardo Da Vinci’s manuscripts “typotranslated” and downloaded from the internet as a background to write and draw about my studio projects.