Fields and Objects in Space, Time, and Space-time

The well-known distinction between field-based and object-based approaches to spatial information is generalised to arbitrary locational frameworks, including in particular space, time and space-time. We systematically explore the different ways in which these approaches can be combined, and address the relative merits of a fully four-dimensional approach as against a more conventional ‘three-plus-one’-dimensional approach. We single out as especially interesting in this respect a class of phenomena, here called multiaspect phenomena, which seem to present different aspects when considered from different points of view. Such phenomena (e.g., floods, wildfires, processions) are proposed as the most natural candidates for treatment as fully four-dimensional entities (‘hyperobjects’), but it remains problematic how to model them so as to do justice to their multi-aspectual nature. The paper ends with a range of important researchable questions aimed at clearing up some of the difficulties raised.