S07 → N400
The Spike of Fascinating & Unexpected
SPIKE 28
→ MAP.
© 1. Institut Géographique National (IGN) — Aiguille du Midi, Excerpt from Mont Blanc sheet No. 1 North 1:10'000 (1952) / 2. Harold Fisk/U.S. Army Corp of Engineers — Harold Fisk Map of the Mississippi River (1944) / 3. Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) — Project for the city of Grenoble / 4. Premier Annuaire du Club Alpin Français — Carte topographique du Massif du Mont Pelvoux (1874) / 5. Rodolfo Lanciani — Detailed Map of the Forum from the Forma Urbis Romae, Rome, Italy (1893-1901) / 6. unknown — Hereford Mappa Mundi (XIIIe) / 7. British Library MS Lansdowne 204 — Hardyng’s Map of Scotland (1457) / 8. Eduard Imhof — Napfgruppe, Aquarell auf Druck der Situation, Schweizerischer Mittelschulatlas (1976) / 9. unknown — The hanging monasteries of Meteora in the 19th century, Greece / 10. François E. Matthes — Yosemite National Park, Glacial and Postglacial Deposits (1930) / 11. unknown — Map of Magellan’s round the world voyage (1519-1521) / 12. Harry Beck — Harry Beck revolutionised the London Underground map with his angular representation, inspired by electric circuit diagrams (1931) / 13. LIFE magazine — “Fuller’s Dymaxion World embodies his effort to resolve the dilemma of cartography: how to depict as a flat surface this spherical world, with true scale, true direction and correct configuration at one and the same time” LIFE (1943) / 14. LIFE magazine — R. Buckminster Fuller holding his folded Dymaxion Map (1943).
-100
-400
The oldest known map is believed to be around 9000 years old. This ancient map was discovered in Çatalhöyük, an archaeological site in modern-day Turkey. It is a wall painting that depicts a layout of a village with the nearby Hasan Dağı mountain. Another of the earlier map is the “Map of Mundi” or “Hereford Mappa Mundi”, which dates back to around 1300 AD. It is not a typical geographical map; it is a mediaeval depiction of the world as known at the time, with the inclusion of both real and mythical elements. Indeed, alongside actual geographical locations, fantastical creatures, biblical scenes, and descriptions of legendary lands like Atlantis are also depicted.
Among the great variety of maps designed around the world, it is worth noting the Dymaxion map, also known as the Fuller map. It is a projection created by Buckminster Fuller in 1943. It aims to provide a more accurate representation of the Earth’s continents and their relative sizes and shapes, reducing the distortion that is common in other map projections. This map uses an icosahedral projection, which involves projecting the Earth’s surface onto an icosahedron—a polyhedron with 20 equilateral triangular faces—before unfolding it into a flat, two-dimensional map.
One of the key advantages of the Dymaxion map is its ability to minimize distortion of landmasses and oceans, preserving their relative sizes and shapes more accurately than traditional map projections like the Mercator or Robinson projections. Additionally, it presents the continents as nearly continuous landmasses without the large gaps and distortions seen in other projections, offering a more realistic view of the world’s geography. This design emphasizes global unity and interconnectedness by avoiding the centring of any particular region, which challenges the conventional Eurocentric and Americentric worldviews. Despite its advantages, the Dymaxion map has faced criticism for its unconventional layout, which can be disorienting and difficult to use for navigation. Additionally, while it reduces distortion, it does not eliminate it entirely, particularly in the representation of polar regions.
—
→ Sourced from: SYSTEM 02 (Altanube Pando)
→ Stored online: N400 Spikes Repository
—
→ Search log: Google images / London Transport Museum
—
© If you are the owner of a picture and want it removed, please contact us.