  Spin and spatial dimensionalities are universal concepts, essential for
describing both phase transitions and dynamics in magnetic materials. Lately,
the same ideas have been adopted and used to describe some of the properties of
magnetic metamaterials. Arrays of mesoscopic magnets, or mesospins, have been
utilised to replicate and explore systems belonging to different universality
classes. Here we discuss a system which does not conform to the conventional
use of the ideas behind universality, as the mesospins can change their spin
dimensionality between 0 (vortex) and 2 (XY-like). The transitions are enabled
by nucleation and annihilation of vortex cores, shifting the topological
charges between the interior and the edges of the elements. The results provide
insight into how dynamics at different length scales couple, leading to
non-trivial thermally driven topological transitions in magnetic metamaterials.
