The classic concepts of aesthetics are based on what is tangible, visible and perceptible by our senses. What is beautiful beyond our senses, in four or more dimensions?

These type of questions might have been asked by our ascendants when they drew their first designs which lacked of perspective and volume; or when impressionists tried to represent colours differently from what the intuition and senses made believe.

These questions challenge our logic, since it is not calibrated to think on what is not perceptible by our tri-dimensional senses. This implies an intellectual challenge for thinkers and creators, which opens a whole new way on how to represent reality.

The modern concepts of quantum physics, general relativity and fractal geometry give us some light on how to make an interpretation of the reality beyond our senses. How is a tri-dimensional body, in the fourth dimension? The fourth dimension is nothing but the third, with a new dimension called time. Photography is volumes captured in time,but represented in two dimensions.

There is physical evidences that demonstrates that time passes slower at higher speeds. This means that the fourth dimension must not be static, it contracts and expands accordingly.

This will cause that objects are perceived in a different way by different observers who move at different speeds. All of us are moving in relation with something. You must realise that the earth rotates at approximately 500 meters per second and we believe that we don’t move at all. If everything is moving, why represent everything static and sharp?

Our senses suggest that time does have a direction, it always goes forward. In the fourth dimension this is not necessarily true, since there is the possibility that objects can move forward or backwards in time.

If time doesn’t always move forward, the concepts of an absolute beginning and creation will be challenged because if time can go backwards, then the beginning of time would have no sense. It might be that an absolute begining exists, but it would be possible to go backwards and forward in time beyond this initial point. Objects that expand and contract in an infinite pattern can represent this concept. Infinite alternatives are opened using this concept to represent objects.

How does the time dimension affect colour, light, volumes, shadows, textures and even composition? Colour is the reflection of different light waves by an object. The visible part of the colour spectre is between the ultraviolet and the infrared. It is totally possible that in the fourth dimension there are colours beyond our visual range, but how are they? Our senses cannot perceive them , but it is possible to do so with instruments and films which are sensible to infrared, ultraviolet, X-rays or gamma rays. In addition, when an object moves at a very high speed in relation to an observer, it is proven that, when the object moves towards the Observer, its colour range tends to the ultraviolet; but when the object moves away from the observer, its colours have the tendency to the infrared (Doppler effect). According to this, we could change the chromatic range of colours depending if the objects are moving towards or away from the observer. 
This concept was used in a less scientific way by the Dadaist, who just painted with colours which were different from the real ones.

If there is in fact another tonal scale in the fourth dimension, this may imply that there is another chromatic balance. Even mixing colours should react in a different way from what we are accustomed. It is absolutely possible that in the fourth dimension colours are different from the ones we perceive in three dimensions, since its colour space is different.

If we apply the time to volumes, the motives or objects that we want to represent should necessarily be moving in relation to something. This does not mean that they are moving from the observer’s point of view, since both observer and object may be moving in a similar way, having the appearance of being static. If we accept the preceding idea, the relative movement should be going forward or backwards in relation to something. Therefore, colours will tend to the infrared or the ultraviolet respectively, depending on the point of view. Normally, differences are not perceptible by our senses and relevant variations only occur at very high speeds.

Another concept that physics gives us is that whenever an object is accelerated, its volume is expanded and eventually tends to the infinite near the light speed. This means that at a higher speed, we will perceive objects increasingly distorted; we have to take into account that at a higher speed time passes slower. Is this distortion, the infinite repetition of the volume in three dimensions?

Quantum physics tells us that there is a smallest particle and it is called quantum and it behaves as waves. It also tells us that the more precision in the determination of the position of an object, the more difficult is to determine its speed and direction and vice versa. This implies that it is only possible that something is in fact where we perceive it, but it is not certain. This is because of the limitations of our senses. The concept that what it is there ,may be not be there, opens a new way of representing the reality.

This probabilistic/statistical aspect of the objects and particles implies that the representation of the reality only has the probability of being true.

The random and the chaos possibly created the Cosmos (the order of everything). In other words, what we perceive is nothing but a random disorder partially perceptible and predictable. How could we create random works that we are seeing but that they are not necessarily there?

Fractals are an example of how to create randomly. Fractal geometry allows the representation of reality in infinite interactions. A fractal straight line in an infinite group of probabilities which tend to a straight line and that is perceived as a line by our senses.

The different forms in which the objects are gathered according to the probabilities, form new objects. This is very similar to how nature is formed.
The chaos and the cosmos are in a constant interaction. Reaching the balance between light, composition and colours in a chaotic environment, is a challenge. However, if the latter is achieved, it is a representation of the universe forces and nature in harmony. How to achieve this in two or three dimensions is already difficult, with time included, is a mayor challenge.

Photography seems to me as the ideal media to apply these concepts since it captures a volume in a time space in two dimensions and it may capture colour spectres, beyond our visual range (infrared, X-rays or ultraviolet). 
After many experiments, I am starting to try to represent the fourth dimension in my works.