DOWN UNDER NO LONGER - BUT WERE WE REALLY THERE TO START WITH? - Louise Smith - Australia

Louise Smith

6 years ago · 2 min. reading time · ~100 ·

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DOWN UNDER NO LONGER - BUT WERE WE REALLY THERE TO START WITH?

WHICH WAY IS UP?

"The Blue Marble" is a famous photograph of the Earth taken on 7 December 1972,
by the crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft en route to the Moon at a distance of about 29,000 kilometres (18,000 mi).

Earth seen from Apollo 17 NASA

The Venetian Senate commissioned this map from the monk Fra Mauro, probably for display in the Doge’s palace. It presented a radically new world image but the Doge criticised it for not exaggerating the size of Venice. Instead, most of Asia on the left side of the map (presented upside down) is depicted according to the writings of the Venetian Marco Polo.

The Fra Mauro world map (1450).

As the map was designed to be viewed on a table, here Pierre Desceliers's World Map, 1550, appears upside down.

Photograph: The British Library

So how did the north end up on top of the map ?

McArthur’s Universal Corrective Map of the World has a fabulous history, made by an Australian who was tormented for coming from the “bottom of the world”. It was the first modern South-up map, published in 1979.

McArthur’s Universal Corrective Map of the World

Another age-old convention that has subtly but seemingly innocuously under-privileged the southern hemisphere comes from the fact that the north is always put at the top. This was not always the case.

In medieval Christian maps, East was located at the top as it was believed the world and the garden of Eden came from the east. Meanwhile in Islamic maps of around the same period, South was up.

The fact that our maps typically put North at the top is a mere convention. But very minor decisions can have very major effects on how we see the world.

It would of course be silly to speculate on whether world history would have taken any different turns if our basic cartographic conventions had been different over the last half a millennium, but imagine for a moment that when we pictured the world we live in, we all thought of this:

The Gall-Peters equal projection map, but the other way up this time.

This is an Australian map of the world designed by Donald Blygh , who said, "I am sick and tired of seeing my beautiful country stuck in the bottom right-hand corner of world maps. I want a map with Australia at the top and in the middle.”

Australian World Map - perspective is everything

The orientation of maps resulted from a combination of chance, technology and politics in a way that makes simple solutions impossible. But at a time when the global south continues to suffer more than its share of violence and poverty, let’s not dismiss McArthur’s Universal Corrective Map of the World too quickly.

It continues to symbolize a noble wish:

that we could overturn the unjust political and economic relationships in our world as easily as we can flip the maps on our walls.

Have a Happy Afternoon Map !

I found another interesting map to include

More about Maps

http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/2/maps-cartographycolonialismnortheurocentricglobe.html

http://mapdesign.icaci.org/2014/02/mapcarte-38365-mcarthurs-universal-corrective-map-of-the-world-stuart-mcarthur-1979/

http://mapdesign.icaci.org/map-examples/

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#McArthur #Universal Corrective Map #World #Apollo #Earth

Comments

Louise Smith

6 years ago #31

#32
YES https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAgX6qlJEMc

Wayne Yoshida

6 years ago #30

#31
Traffic circles! Not too many in Calif. But the most excellent and funny example of traffic circle / roundabout confusion is displayed in the Chevy Chase movie, "European Vacation."

Louise Smith

6 years ago #29

#30
Thank you Wayne Yoshida Yes I think so too It is the easiest way to choose the most commonly held point of reference But it can sometimes lead us into danger without thinking or up the garden path without thinking or to the wrong destination (can also blame GPS) without thinking I have only been to Washington, DC and didn't drive But you should try driving in Canberra ACT Aus Capital There are so many roundabouts that it's almost impossible to choose a point of reference The Aus Parliament is there which makes sense as Pollies are always going around in circles !

Wayne Yoshida

6 years ago #28

Thanks Louise. interesting comments from the Bees. I was thinking about this in simple terms: When one floats in space (zero gravity) or flies in the air (on a plane, for example) the directions are artificial. One must "force" the use of a point of reference. And this is what we are thinking of - both figuratively and literally. Choose one frame of reference and go from there. Sort of like driving around in Washington, DC or Boston, Mass. Or Miami, Fla. . . .

Louise Smith

6 years ago #27

#28
A fantastic image Joyce \ud83d\udc1d Bowen Brand Ambassador @ beBee ! I wish we could. Sometimes there is so much injustice in the world, it get's overwhelming. I try to remind myself the best I can do is support the people who come to see me everyday. If everyone did the same, the world would be a better place !

Joyce 🐝 Bowen Brand Ambassador @ beBee

6 years ago #26

"that we could overturn the unjust political and economic relationships in our world as easily as we can flip the maps on our walls." A dream come true?

Phil Friedman

6 years ago #25

#22
Louise, my wife and I traveled across Australia in the early nineties. I had been assigned by Power & Motoryacht magazine to test and write about a 70-foot power catamaran that was being manufactured in NZ, and we arranged to detour to Australia for a couple of weeks during the return trip. We spent time in Sidney, then Cairns, the outback in the Ayer's Rock area, and finally Brisbane. From Cairns, we visited the barrier reef and went up a couple of rivers, one was, I think, the Barron. That's where we saw crocs straight out of Crocodile Dundee. There had been a long drought and they were coming up (?) river to eat farmers' cows. It was before the Aboriginal people had made it well known that they disapproved of tourists stomping all over their sacred grounds, so we ended up climbing Ayer's Rock, then circumnavigated its base. Wow. Sidney zoo was delightful as was Sydney itself. I am a big fan of Australia and Aussies. Cheers!

Louise Smith

6 years ago #24

Thank you Lada \ud83c\udfe1 Prkic for sharing this buzz in Fractals Forever !

Louise Smith

6 years ago #23

#23
NO BUT A MAN LIVES THERE !

Phil Friedman

6 years ago #22

Pythagorean, not Oythagireans -- although no doubt both existed at some point in time before The Inqusition set the predominating world view back to the Stone Age. Cheers!

Phil Friedman

6 years ago #21

#21
As I remember, most of the Ancient Greek philosophers were creations of Plato and surely Aristotle was a straw man created by Thomas Aquinas.I would not put much stock in Pythagoras since he and his merry band of Oythagireans also believed that some reincarnated souls returned as bean and so would not eat that species of vegetable. Next you will be telling us that the moon is not made of green cheese. You, Louise are quite a kidder. Thank you for the "history" lesson. Cheers!

Louise Smith

6 years ago #20

#20
When were you here ? How long ? Where did you go ?

Louise Smith

6 years ago #19

#20
I think that because " Pythagoras 6th-century BC and Parmenides 5th-century stated that the Earth is spherical, the spherical view spread rapidly in the Greek world. Around 330 BC, Aristotle maintained on the basis of physical theory and observational evidence that the Earth was spherical. Hermannus Contractus (1013–1054) was among the earliest Christian scholars to estimate the circumference of Earth. Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), the most important and widely taught theologian of the Middle Ages, believed in a spherical Earth. Portuguese navigation down and around the coast of Africa in the latter half of the 1400s gave wide-scale observational evidence for Earth's sphericity. The ultimate demonstration came when Ferdinand Magellan's expedition completed the first global circumnavigation in 1521. " overall people did not believe in the FLAT Earth theory.

Phil Friedman

6 years ago #18

I believe you may all be overthinking this "downunder" thing. My guess is that it began with Europeans fearing they would sail off the edge of the earth, and when they didn't, they're thinking retreated into picturing traveling over the edge and continuing onto the "bottom" face of the earth. This terminology persisted even when the "picture" was long given up (except among the members of the Flat Earth Society.) I gained great respect for Australians when I was there. Especially when I saw crocs as big as pick up trucks and heard farmers complaining that crocs were taking and eating their cows. Cheers!

Louise Smith

6 years ago #17

#3
Pamela \ud83d\udc1d Williams BTW Australian Indigenous people's dot paintings were often maps of where to find food, water and meeting places !

Louise Smith

6 years ago #16

#3
Pamela \ud83d\udc1d Williams As for "thoughts, images form in your mind when you interact with Americans? " that is a post in itself ! I will try to write it for you with pros & cons ! Please be patient,

Louise Smith

6 years ago #15

#3
Pamela \ud83d\udc1d Williams Regarding "How is it that cultures can be so different, attitudes so diverse. Is it simply because of the hemisphere in which they exist or as you insinuate; is it because political an societal powers at work have instilled these differences? Do we only see the differences and not how similar we are?" This is a complex question ! Although cultures may seem different and attitudes diverse, I don't think they are. They look different due to geography and climate. However, most cultures value having their own country, identity, language, customs, religion, cuisine and values such as loyalty, freedom, self preservation of all at any cost, family, politics or governance. These are the same. We have been taught to see difference from the beginning of time as a means of survival of our own cultural group. But today this is mostly not the case except when greed or football are involved. Each person has a way of reacting to difference depending on their personality but there is also the "crowd" mentality where people perceive themselves to be threatened and react without thinking for themselves.

Louise Smith

6 years ago #14

#3
Hi Pamela \ud83d\udc1d Williams Thank you for your positive comments. Regarding "It amazes me how a map can possess so much significance in people's viewpoints, political or social." It's from the dawn of map making and maybe even before that, boundaries are important to people for survival, culture, resources & trade / making $. That's why so many explorers sailed to find new lands. And also people went to them for freedom from poverty, slavery, political, religious and cultural repression. Some were just plain adventurers - history's entrepreneurs if you like ! But if you think about it for a minute, you will know about quite a few of these situations past and present. - Vikings raided & Romans conquered UK - Colonisation by Britain, France, Holland, Belgium, Portugal, Spain....... - The Mayflower transported the first English Separatists or Pilgrims from England to the New World/US in 1620. - Boundary issues in WWI & WW2 which still impact on nations today eg Former Yugoslavia - Israel becoming a country at the expense of Palestine - North & South Korea - Russia annexing the Baltic States and the Crimea - Indonesia annexing part of Papua and Timor - China annexing Tibet, Mongolia, Hong Kong and recently Spratly Islands in the South China Sea

Louise Smith

6 years ago #13

#14
Yes Pamela \ud83d\udc1d Williams I think it must be very painful to endure US politics at the moment. We had the same in both LP and LNP with leader changes. I am interested to know if President Trump has any advisers that vet his tweets? It seems very strange to me that the US President tweets. I know SM is widely used now but seems a bit below the Office to me. Or maybe it's the actual content. What do you think ?

Louise Smith

6 years ago #12

#12
Yes Ian as Gauteng, South Africa is on a similar Latitude to Australia you are ! And your beautiful country has plenty sunshine, friendly people and sport. Also our sporting teams can play each other since the apartheid related ban was lifted - The Australian Government 1972 - 1991 placed a ban on sporting tours involving South African teams. Last year it seemed that rugby, cricket, athletics and netball were banned by the SA government from bidding for major international tournaments after they failed to create enough opportunities for black players. The ban is in place for at least a year but might not be resolved until 2018 depending on the success of a more equal racial mix on the teams. We in Australia have the same problem in a different guise - % of females as politicians ! There is great debate about a quota system with some female pollies against it when they got their seat by Merit !

Ian Weinberg

6 years ago #11

#9
Yea, we're ok putting Aussie at the top of the map - puts us at a close second from the top! And we deserve it too. We've got a beautiful country, plenty sunshine, friendly people and ...... and ...... sport..

Lance 🐝 Scoular

6 years ago #10

#7
Looks good 🗺😊

Ken Boddie

6 years ago #9

#3
You ask a question, Pam, which is impossible, let alone imprudent, to answer. I interact with and meet a range of diverse individuals from America, and not with a nation of uniform character and actions. Better to ask what we think of your head honcho and how a collective of the America population could put him in power. Please note that I'm not throwing stones here, as Aussie politics is also a glass house of misrepresentation and all too easily criticised.

Louise Smith

6 years ago #8

#4
Ken Boddie Don't tell them but we have - a lot of sunshine and blue sky - a great way of life - generally a great work ethic according to researchers - a chance to make something of yourself from school to Uni to a good job if you work for it - great countryside bush and beach - some of the smartest inventors in the world - some of the best researchers in the world - some of the best sports people and teams in the world - Health care for everyone - the most successful multicultural nation - amazingly good relations with other countries - the means to be self sufficient if necessary Yes Phil Friedman sometimes that is true ! Sure there's lots of not so good things like you alluded to. Our politics has been a bit similar to Italy in recent years. But overall we are still doing reasonably well. I think the next decade will really be telling as to changes in our way of life. But if the UK Monarchy had lived in Tasmania and Captain Cook had set off to find the Great North Land, today we would have maps not unlike some of those "upside down " ones above ! Tasmania is 90758 km²/ 35042 sq miles, England is 130395 km² / 50346sq miles. Not much different in size ! And well ahead of UK if you compare to the whole of Australia. Tasmania would be called King George III's Holy Island City !

Louise Smith

6 years ago #7

#2
"Our politicians have been figuratively turning our world upside down for way too long, Louise. So why not do it literally? Great concept from the Land-Up-Over. Incidentally if you don't like us being referred to as upside down then why not tell the offender(s) to read this upside down." That's very clever Ken Boddie but to be honest - I really don't care what anyone says or thinks of Australia in a derogatory sense. I've been to 23 countries in the world and many times to Japan but I haven't found anywhere else I would choose to live.

Louise Smith

6 years ago #6

#5
Fixed I hope !

Louise Smith

6 years ago #5

#5
Thank you Lance

Lance 🐝 Scoular

6 years ago #4

Louise Smith you may need to edit this. As I view it the graphic for "The Gall-Peters equal projection map, but the other way up this time. " it appears as a grey beBee logo.

Phil Friedman

6 years ago #3

Not to worry, Louise, those of us who know and love the denizens of Downunder can always tell an Aussie -- and we also know you can't tell them anything. :-)

Ken Boddie

6 years ago #2

Our politicians have been figuratively turning our world upside down for way too long, Louise. So why not do it literally? Great concept from the Land-Up-Over. Incidentally if you don't like us being referred to as upside down then why not tell the offender(s) to read this upside down. 370HSSV0773H. 🤣😂🤣

Louise Smith

6 years ago #1

Hi Wayne Yoshida you might like this :) Louise

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6 years ago · 4 min. reading time

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