Plastic Space and Signification

Abstract

The central concept of this article is plastic space. The familiar notion is that of plastic arts, which are understood as those that represent concepts, emotions or situations by means of forms and volumes; or rather, through elements that are perceived by the senses. Each time period produces their own ways of representing space that is not just a simple reproduction but a production; space produced in this way is plastic space and the result of human behavior of a given society including their geographic, mathematical and physical conceptions etc. When those intellectual and moral conceptions are no longer valid, then plastic space changes. In this article we analyze two profound changes in the representation of space in two moments of history: The Renaissance and the end of the 19th century and the relation between these changes and the transformations in physics.