Horizontal Lines and Vertical Lines in Science and Art

Abstract

In the scientific context, horizontal and vertical lines form a grid; they create Cartesian space, an effective way to organize an area. Confined within this rigid lattice of three rectangular dimensions, such space is homogeneous and isotropic; its dimensions interchangeable. Within this space, science endeavors to identify the general laws that govern the movement of stars as well as atoms. Within this grid marked by co-ordinate signposts, every point is the same as any other point. Every object is held in precise numerical relationships with every other object; the space itself becomes an object, independent of the observer's eye. Depth is no more than the third dimension, and on the plane, a line is called horizontal or vertical only by definition. There is no reason to wonder what is horizontal and what is vertical when one is looking through a microscope or a telescope. Even in science, horizontals and verticals have meaning only within the limited space surrounding the observer. However, as Merleau-Ponty rightly says, Descartes was wrong to liberate this space. He erred in constructing it as a positive being, not subject to any point of view, stripped of any latency or profundity, with no true depth of its own [1]. And indeed, we are aware that the schematic nature of the perspectiva artificialis, which is implicit in Cartesian space, differs from the authenticity of the perspectiva naturalis, which gives an intrinsic sense of depth to our world. Similarly for the plane, it seems to us that the horizontal line is substantially different from the vertical line. Of course we can find a simple reason for all of this in our learning process having a sensorial basis. The development of our brain depends on our visual environment, and the visual cortex adapts to the visual experience as the individual matures. In the visual world that surrounds us, vertical and horizontal lines gradually become associated with very different sensations, such as the fatigue of climbing the vertical, and free movement along the horizontal surface of the earth.