The Upside Down is a tesseract.
(time theory)
The writers tweeted a picture of the book Wrinkle in Time, which its title refers to a tesseract. You may ask, what's a tesseract? The basis is that a tesseract is a fifth dimension (the fourth dimension is time). Even in the book, to explain it, they use the same metaphor that they used in Stranger Things about the flea.
Here they're only using this concept to travel through dimensions. In ST, creating gates with so much power that tore space and time. And in the book, in a very similar way, to make a shortcut go to point A to point B.
We know that El has the power to create these gates, so Vecna is interested in her. And she also was the one who sent Henry to another dimension for the first time. But if you pay attention, this dimension didn't look like the Upside Down, so it makes me believe that these aren't the same place.
One is blue with spores and looks like Hawkins on November sixth, 1983, the day Willl disappeared (remember that the Duffers said this was important, and they will explain it in s5). And the other has warm colors and looks like a desert with many rocks.
My theory is that Will created the Upside Down while trying to hide from the Demogorgon. As in Wrinkle in Time, not everyone has the power of tesser. And Will manipulated time and space to create this fifth dimension.
We have seen how the Upside Down can affect the real world via the lights. They use light particles to communicate with others. A similar way that Interstellar uses the strings in the fifth dimension (also a tesseract). But in Stranger Things, they have only used it to communicate in the same period of time (the present), but what if there's a way to also communicate to other periods of time (the past)?
In Interstellar, the tesseract is an enormous structure used to communicate through gravity. Still, it's Copper's love for his daughter that allows him to see her in the past and communicate with her in this exact period. Because the premise of the movie is love transcends time and space.
ST also uses the trope of the power of love. So where I'm going with this? Our heroes will find a way to communicate with their past selves to try to prevent things, but I don't think they will be able to change the past even if they try.
My reason to believe that they will also play with time is that our villain literally has a clock motif and is obsessed with time. Also, there have been some references about time travel. And going back to season 1, the night Will disappeared, the lights in Mike's house were flickering. And the light in Will's bike also started to flicker, so he was able to notice the Demogorgon. Maybe it also was a warning. Still, if we continue with this theory, Vecna was living in the other dimension, not in the Upside Down, so he wasn't the one manipulating the lights because Will hadn't created it "yet." So who was behind the flickering? Our heroes in the future.
This isn't a new theory; I know this is the basis of flickergate. It's cute the idea that they were kissing in the Upside Down, but I think they were trying to prevent Will from leaving. Like in Interstellar, Cooper uses Morse code to send the message "STAY" But in both cases, they couldn't stop it.
Remember the iconic scene with Joyce and the Christmas lights, when she painted an alphabet, and someone warned her to RUN. Some people had questioned how Will was able to see the letters when the Upside Down was stuck on the day he disappeared. So, what if it wasn't the Will who was stuck in the UD and was someone from the future that was trying to save her (maybe Will but his future self).
There may be more examples of lights flickering, but these are the two that I remember right now.
Also, we know that Will could call his house via the phone. And in season 2, when they discovered that the way to defeat the Mindflayer was by closing the gate, the phone started to ring, so Will knew he was in the Byers' house. Maybe Vecna also will figure out how to use the Upside Down and try to intercept their plan, calling the house at that time.
Bonus: Arrival was in the s4 movie list inspiration. A movie that also plays with the concept that time is non-linear. The key to communicating with the aliens is understanding how they perceive time. You can read more about it in this analysis of the movie.
In conclusion: The Upside Down is a fifth dimension (a tesseract) where you can communicate with others dimensions, not only in the present.
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Tom is fifty-one when he enters a tattoo parlour for the first time. He says "Hello, I'm here to fix an appointment for a tattoo", showing the girl behind the desk two pictures of a robot. He walks out, ten minutes later, with $100 of deposit left behind and an appointment for two weeks from that moment.
(To be there at that time, he has to reschedule half of the meetings and the hirings that day so that his secretary looks at him like he lost his mind for the rest of the day.)
(At the tattoo patrol, Mindy signs the appointment as "Tom the hot dilf", Caleb laughs, "So you want this one?" and Mindy answers, "If you don't let me tattoo him, I'm going to make sure you're not available that day." All smiles and sunshine
(Mindy can be scary when she wants.)
It's Wednesday, and Tom is early, but what's new about that? Mindy is already waiting for him, a cup of coffee between her hands while she explains her ideas for the tattoos he showed her.
"What's the story behind this?" she asks, while she starts tracing the lines on Tom's body.
"I'm-" Tom starts before stopping once and then a second time.
"Sorry, I'm noisy. Don't feel like you have to share." She smiles, biting the inside of her cheek, trying not to blush too much.
"No, it's not a problem. I'm not very used to talking about this stuff with strangers," he answers a couple of seconds later, making a strange expression when the needles trace over a particularly sensitive area on his skin. "I'm in the Navy, and I'm gay. I thought that the Navy would have been my whole life, with nothing behind it, and if something was not surely the family I wanted, then something happened, and I got the whole package: a husband and baby. We were watching the iron giant when he presented me with the papers to legally become his dad. A little after that, he walked out our door, and I hadn't seen him for ten years. And now I'm in a position comfortable enough to get a tattoo because the only person who's going to ask me to strip when I'm at work is my doctor, and I know him for long enough; he won't rattle me out," he finishes, laughing softly. "I hope—I know getting inked won't solve the situation, but I hope my boy will like it whenever he sees it."
Mindy has to stop working to pick up a couple of tissues for Tom and herself.
"I'm sure he is going to love it."
"I really hope so; I really do."
(Mindy gives a brownie to Tom with all the instructions on how to take care of the tattoo, and she gets to give him a hug too, just before he walks out of the shop. When Tom hugs her back, she thinks the guy, whoever he is, must have been the luckiest son of a bitch because her dad never gave him such a food hug.
Three years later, a tall, curly guy walks in, followed by a man she is sure she has already seen somewhere.
"Tom!" She smiles. "It's unfair how you got even hotter since the last time I saw you," she says, all cheeky and smiley.
A man behind Tom, whom she hadn't noticed before, laughs. "Yeah, Tom, you get unfairly hot for sure," he says, looking at the man, batting his long eyelashes, and smiling all sweetly at him.
"Please, dads, not here too," the taller guy says, a hand already covering his face. "Can you guys stop flirting for two seconds? Please?"
"To be fair, I would flirt with him too, and even more openly, if he were my husband," Mindy answers. "So you're the kid?"
"Yeah," he says, a hand flying to his pocket. "I would like to take an appointment to have this tattooed."
He says this, showing her a drawing of a bolt.
"I have a spot now, if you want. One client cancelled their appointment yesterday."
The guy smiles at her before turning to the two men. "You don't have to stick around; I can take a cab home after."
"Nah, baby goose, we will get cosy on the couch and wait for you," the short man answers before taking Tom's hand in his and turning towards the couch.
"See you later, baby goose," Tom adds, a hand on his cheek. "We're going where you left us."
The guy smiles softly, almost a little lost. "I see you later than, papa."
The last thing Mindy sees before closing the door behind them is Tom kissing the other man's forehead while his hands rest over the place Mindy tattooed Tom years ago.
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Title: "Non-linear regression in a blurry cloud of (un-) certainty"
Date: 2023/06/12 - Size: DIN A4
Collage made with torn pieces of paper, printed background paper (top is rather dark night sky, bottom is mererly clouds in pastel-colors)
I resized and printed the non-linear regression visualisation/illustration and put it on top of the watercolour background paper.
I included a scrap piece of paper with the title of the picture and have torn it with a spiral-shaped jag at the bottom, which I bent around the top part of the non-linear regression illustration.
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