abstraction – TimeSpace Warps

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“Adam and Will are joined by Professor Steven Shaviro to discuss his work on the philosophy of science fiction, developing on themes from recent texts such as Extreme Fabulations and 2016’s Discognition out on Repeater Books. We asked Steven about the various techniques that writers such as Frank Herbert, Adrian Tchaikovsky, and China Mieville to unearth possible futures in the present; and how they extrapolate from, speculate upon, and generate fables about dominant tendencies of our political and technological situation. We also touched upon philosophies of time and narrative such as Bergson, Deleuze, Whitehead, Foucault, Marshall McLuhan, and Darko Suvin.”

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A Trip to Infinity is a new 2022 documentary film directed by Jonathan Halperin and Drew Takahashi, in their feature-length debut, which explores the concept of infinity through interviews with mathematicians, physicists, and philosophers around the world. (wiki)

God how I hated math in high school! What we all missed was this hallucinatory trip across various infinities (some larger than others) not the bad infinities of boring long ours. It is an invitation to getting pleasurably mindfucked by some of the most interesting physicists (including Carlo Rovelli) and thinkers around (talking heads) around while they get probed with silly questions by the documentary makers. Forget about daily troubles, let us discuss the bizarre and important implications and paradoxical outcomes of encountering endless numbers!

I appreciate how animation has come fully into its own with this documentary. Maths and geometry and all that are all good and fine on a piece a paper, not to mention calculus have to get out, start moving, swirling. High-level abstractions are not made for our heads and animations can give them life, make these realities tangible using all sorts of time-worn techniques from the entire history of animation. This documentary is truly the work of several studios and knowingly uses techniques ranging from stop motion, ahand-drawn paper cutout animations to motion graphics, CGI, animated medieval manuscript drawings, and even retro vintage-looking (Fleischer Bros) examples (such as the Infinite Room Hotel sequence).

It is a wonder and pleasure to watch it just to see how these various sequences work out seamlessly, all part of a larger circumference. It is also one of those rare science documentaries that go beyond the limits of current science and dabble into the metaphysical. Not only that, but such documentaries make us well aware that even if science does not have all the answers, it will not stop. We are likely to be more akin to the cat in the cartoon, trying to teach ourselves quantum mechanics under the auspices of human (or cat) finitude. A trip to Infinity makes us become more aware perhaps of what is going beyond the limits of any scientific theory or how imagination tries to come to the rescue when the experiment is not just too expensive, but totally beyond anyone’s reach.