Scientific and philosophical thought have had significant influence on artistic exploration. One such idea, which engaged Italian Futurists in the second decade of the century, is that of simultaneity. Understanding the Futurists' interpretation of the concept of simultaneity necessitates a view of the discourse on reality taking place then, defined to include an unseeable fourth dimension, and of some of the other major elements pertinent to that discourse. Important to understanding the Futurists' perception and use of simultaneity is the meaning given by context to various terms associated with the discussion.
Geometry concerns itself with properties, measurement, and relationships in space.
These challenges to verifying an unseeable world persisted into the 20th century. At the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries, other interpretations of additional dimensions included the element of time. Relativity theory altered ideas about both the properties and measurement of events in space. Events such as time that were often understood as absolute, that is, independent of their relationship to other events, were frequently viewed as immeasurable. Although Bergson's philosophy referred only indirectly to a fourth dimension through his writings about the nature of time, his references to the relative and absolute qualities were influential.