The Production of Hyperspace

Abstract

The history of hyperspace is first of all a history of the various effects of the inner border of representation, and in this sense also a history of the relations between the real and the imaginary. Only on this basis is it possible to grasp the reason that the notion of hyperspace transcended the narrow field of mathematics and attained such an importance and popularity within the contexts of spirituality, religion, and art. Hyperspace made its first appearance as a concept related to the problem of the dimensionality of space. Since within the geometry of the Antiquity a representation of a geometric object was equal to its existence, it was only after Descartes’ introduction of analytical geometry that the fissure between the real and the imaginary became possible. This fissure appears to be the basis for every move beyond empirical space. the proximity of mathematics ensured hyperspace a proximity to the truth, however, only the search for the to represent the real thing itself. In the mechanistic and positivist industrial society of the nineteenth century hyperspace therefore appeared to be an answer to the limitations set up by that society. Today, considering hyperspace mostly in relation to the global internet society, this form presents above all an answer to the limitations and demands of the ideology of individualism.