IMAGE OF THE GLOBE Catalog of Whole Earth Views
‘Never in all their history have men been able truly to conceive of the world as one: a single sphere, a globe, having the qualities of a globe, a round earth in which all the directions eventually meet, in which there is no centre because every point, or none, is centre — an equal earth which all men occupy as equals. The airman's earth, if free men make it, will be truly: a globe in practice, not in theory.’
— Archibald MacLeish, The Image of Victory
IMAGE OF THE GLOBE This catalog explores the institution of the Globe and its manifestation in images. It charts the historic development of this view, from the first discovery and proof that the Earth is round, to the obsessive cartographic quest to measure and map this globe onto a flat surface. I am interested in the way this institution subconsciously influences aspects of our culture, focussing on its power – or lack thereof – to inspire collective action towards a goal i.e. the alleviation of man-made climate change. This involves studying how the globe has been abstracted, given symbolic meaning and used as a visual tool. Within this is an emphasis on the role of the globe in architecture; its literal incorporation as spheres and domes, the symbolism of these objects, or the idea of ‘global architectures’ as opposed to local ones. This view of the globe as a unified mass allows a certain abstraction to occur. Many consider the sphere the perfect three-dimensional solid, formed by matter distributing itself into the most economic space possible, acted on evenly by forces from all sides. But of course, the Earth is not a sphere. It is an oblate spheroid – a squashed sphere – and its surface is lumpy and bumpy. Only when seen from space does the planet appear perfectly round – a blue marble. Similarly, longitude and latitude are highly useful, highly arbitrary ways to determine the location of something on the globe. Plate tectonics, oceanic tides, meteor impacts; we are constantly foiled in our attempts to rationalise the globe. It is, and always will be, a mere model of our world.
MAPPING THE GLOBE Sphericity of the Earth established in Greece 3rd Century BC Earliest terrestrial globe constructed around this period Proved when Juan Sebastián Elcano completed the first circumnavigation of the earth in 1522 Ptolemy’s maps provided backbone of all major cartography after
2nd Century BC - Ptolemy’s map of the known world
 
THE WORLD SPHERE The world as a series of spheres - heavens, earth, circles of hell Today we understand the world as four physical geographical spheres: Lithosphere - crust Hydrosphere - ocean Biosphere - living organisms Atmosphere - air Each major sphere also subdivided into minor spheres
1481 - Sandro Botticelli’s illustration of Dante’s Inferno
GLOBE AS OBJECT
‘Be it known that on this Apple [Globe] here present is laid out the whole world according to its length and breadth in accordance with the art geometry.’ - Legend on terrestrial globe by Martin Behaim, 1492
Behaim’s globe is earliest extant terrestrial globe A portable representation of the whole world Reduces distortion caused by flat projections Usual scale of 1:40 million with circumference of a metre Traditionally made by gluing paper to wood, now thermoplastic Globe as perfect sphere, not accurate ellipsoid Globe as collectable object in educated households
 
1955 - Dutch film showing a globe manufacturing process
GLOBE AS EDEN Sphere contains unblemished landscape of rocks and trees under a cloudy sky Inside is the chaos of the Fall from the Garden of Eden Nature and humanity are held apart - earth was perfect before Fall Globe as enclosure, distancing humans from the ‘exterior’ world


1490-1510 - Garden of Earthly Delights - Hieronymous Bosch
 
GLOBE AS POWER AND KNOWLEDGE Terrestrial and celestial globes given symbolic meaning Globe centred on Rome to highlight tensions between Roman Catholic and Reformed Churches Globe in the hold of the educated, white male Conquering the globe through scientific knowledge
 
1533 - The Ambassadors - Hans Holbein the Younger
 
ATL AS OF GLOBES The first modern atlas A summary of 16th Century Cartography Sorting the world by continent, region and state Fashionable to collect Globe within the home of the wealthy
 
1570 - Theatrum Orbis Terrarum- Abraham Ortelius
 
GLOBE AS AMUSEMENT PARK Expositions regularly feature gigantic globes The world inside the globe is a completely separate world Globe as beacon of prosperity and enjoyment


1906 - Coney Island Globe
1897 - Temple of Geography
 
THE CELESTIAL GLOBE Fascination for the inverted celestial sphere is as common as for the terrestrial globe Desire to demarcate and order every aspect of creation Regularly comes round again in a poetic, unscientific form


1935 - Celestial Sphere - Paul Manship
 
GLOBE AS WORLD-CIT Y Pure white symbol of the World of Tomorrow Absorbs people into its all-encompassing worldview Globe as holy, fetishised object Used to attract people to fair with the promise of technological advances The bigger the globe the better


1939 - Perisphere - New York Expo
GLOBE AS PROPAGANDA A ‘photographic’ view of the world Shortened visual distance between lands Globe under control of the air force Used to convince America of its military success in spite of failed missions Potent warning to enemies - the world is ours
 
1943 - WWII Propaganda - F. E. Manning
 
THE EQUAL GLOBE Azimuthal equidistant projection centred on the North Pole Originally cut o Argentina but later rectified Designed so no nation has any precedence over any other Prime Meridian rotated to horizontal A distorted projection that both favours and diminishes the northern nations
 
1943 - WWII Propaganda - F. E. Manning
GLOBE AS TENSEGRIT Y FIELD ‘Structural shape is guaranteed by the finitely closed, comprehensively continuous, tensional behaviors of the system and not by the discontinuous and exclusively local compressional member behaviors.’ - Buckminster Fuller, 1975
‘What is felt by one is felt by all’ - universal sphericity Potentially originated with artist Kenneth Snelson’s ‘X-frame’ A holistic structure representing a holistic worldview Globe in permanent tension yet stable Globe as a natural shape, not one made by humans
 
1949 - Buckminster Fuller with a tensegrity structure
GLOBE AS ICON OF PROGRESS World expo fascination with globes continues Built to celebrate the beginning of the space age Globe is surrounded by three ‘belts of technology’ originally meant to represent satellite orbits Globe is inscribed with latitude and longitude - man’s control Represents global interdependence and cooperation Dedicated to ‘Man's Achievements on a Shrinking Globe in an Expanding Universe’ Hovers over a fountain suggesting purity of vision and celebration of progress


1964 - Unisphere - New York Expo
 
GLOBES AND BIOSPHERES Globes are seen to represent protected, self-contained systems A climate-controlled space dedicated to the environment Represents the global biosphere, the ecological connection of living things A forerunner to modern closed-ecological systems for space exploration Buckminster Fuller believed the natural analytic geometry of the world was the same as his domes Used as containers for visions of future cities
1967 - Montreal Expo Biosphère
1982 - Disney’s Spaceship Earth at Epcot
SPACESHIP EARTH ‘Once a photograph of the Earth, taken from the outside, is available, a new idea as powerful as any in history will be let loose.’ — attributed to Sir Fred Hoyle, 1948. ‘When you're finally up at the moon looking back on earth, all those differences and nationalistic traits are pretty well going to blend, and you're going to get a concept that maybe this really is one world and why the hell can't we learn to live together like decent people.’ — Frank Borman, Apollo 8 astronaut, 1968 Positions of earth and moon are reversed, placing viewer in position of observer and observed Gives embodied perception to detached Archimedean view of earth Suggested a dawning hope of human unity and ecological awareness Earth is seen as a ‘friendly spaceship’ with us its passengers
1968 - ‘Earthrise’ - Apollo 8
GLOBE AS MILITARY TOOL / ENVIRONMENTAL ICON ‘From space I saw Earth - indescribably beautiful with the scars of national boundaries gone.’ - Muhammad Ahmad Faris, astronaut
Geography is historically tied to military knowledge - paradox of space exploration This image was used to argue the futility of conflict between nations Simultaneously, America an Russia could access high definition photography of the other’s arsenals One of the most reproduced photos in history Used to market both environmentalism and arms dealing The clouds confuse the idea of a perfect cartographic globe and restore earth’s mystique Image was rotated 180º to place North at the top
1972 - ‘The Blue Marble’ - Apollo 17
 
THE GLOBE AND THE AVANT GARDE Whole earth images symbolic of new ecological tools and economies Global village accessible to the caring citizen New distributive systems of information, embracing systems theory and cybernetics Tools for self-suďŹƒcient lifestyle The avant garden later lamented the failure of these images to provoke real lasting change
 
1960s-70s - Whole Earth Catalog initiated by Stewart Brand
CREATING GLOBAL IMAGES ‘Because geography deals in images it is closely bound to the graphic arts, traditionally to painting and now to photography and digital images…it is rare for geographers to devote time to examining the wider implications of the images their science is making of the earth.’ - Denis Cosgrave, Representing the Globe, 1989 Landsat launched in 1972 to provide military images for spying The images are a composite of several scans of terrestrial radiation The remote-sender assigns colours to levels of radiation to produce a ‘photographic’ effect Standard associations used such as green for forest and blue for ocean The images offered users strategic advantages in warfare and agriculture Today images from the 8 Landsat satellites are highly useful for analysing climate change
 
1972 - Landsat 1 imagery before colour naturalising
GLOBE TURNING ‘Don't ask 'what does the globe as image mean?' Ask 'who moves the world?’’ - Erica Carter, 1989
Who has power to turn (or stop turning) the globe? Pirelli advert references Superman turning back time, selling macho ideal Globe turned in the hand of the white, suited male Globe as a metaphor for high speed mobility available to consumers The globe as a space to be travelled across, an adventure
1981 - Pirelli ‘World Turning’ advert
1978 - Superman 1
THE GLOBE IN MARKETING ‘In our global times of global markets, global fashion, global travel, global music, global news and global advertisements, we have to ask - who is representing the world, and how?’ - Paul Wombell, 1989 How peoples of the earth are portrayed is a kind of global image National identities are signified by clothes and makeup Globe is reduced to a child’s toy Suggests ‘fun’ motion around globe but any kind of context is absent According to David Bailey: People are fragmented - a whole group is defined by one small aspect People are objectified - cultural difference is used as a marketing ploy People are renamed - becoming subjects of the Benetton Empire
 
1986 - United Colours of Benetton advert
 
THE PRIMORDIAL GLOBE
Rough metal sculpture with no recognisable continents Suggestive of raw, natural power of the globe before humans Globe originally turned as you ascended escalator, drawing you into the core of the planet Wedged between two walls with celestial murals Now a dramatic backdrop to corporate events
 
1996 - Earth Hall at the Natural History Museum, London
 
GLOBE AS SELF-CONTAINED SYSTEM
Eden project resurrects Fuller’s dome research Suggests a completely self-contained system Actually more like a giant Victorian greenhouse Meant to be an educational centre for sustainable research Entire ecosystems contained within bubble-like worlds


2000 - The Eden Project, Cornwall
 
THE SHATTERED GLOBE Concept of globe shattered by conflict becomes a deconstructivist building Globe is reformed into three shards of territory in warfare- earth, air, water Though globe is reassembled it is not the same Ground inside is curved like a miniature globe, causing disorientation Sharp angles and winding routes deliberately discomfort visitors A global image opposed to the perfect spherical whole
 
2002 - Imperial War Museum North - Daniel Libeskind
THE SIMUL ATED GLOBE A typical, cartographic unclouded earth in permanent sun All scales of the earth theoretically accessible by zooming in and out Users can contribute information to the globe ‘Google Earth addiction’ becomes a phenomena Digital evolution of the physical desktop globe - now with enhanced qualities


2004 - Google Earth
THE RUINED GLOBE ‘The earth is finally round. Of course we knew that before, and yet the earth’s rotundity was still theoretical, geographical, at best aesthetic. Today it takes a new meaning because the consequences of our actions travel around the blue planet and come back to haunt us.’ - Bruno Latour, 2009
Apocalyptic images of Earth finally show human impact from space Eden - the image of a globe unblemished by man - is completely lost Powerful images evoke a strong emotive reaction Manifests a collective fear of environmental catastrophe
 
2008 - opening scenes of the Pixar film Wall.E
KEEPING UP WITH THE GLOBE’S SPIN ‘Sometimes it feels as if the whole planet is joyriding in somebody else’s Porsche, at ninety miles per hour, around blind curves.’ - Pico Iyer, The Global Soul, 2000
Newsrooms often feature moving globes Subconsciously suggests keeping up with the motion of the world Comprehensive coverage of world events A curated selection of what really matters - a tamed globe
 
News room backgrounds featuring globes
 
GLOBE AS ICON Globe has become abstracted to the point of being a logo Instantly recognisable characteristics of globe exploited Signifies global connection, global impact, global citizenship, global outreach, global knowledge etc. Globe goes almost unnoticed as an institution
2016 - Facebook’s Notifications symbol depending on your location
THE LOCALISED GLOBE ‘Never underestimate the importance of local knowledge’ ‘In the future local demand will shape global supply’ ‘In the future even the smallest businesses will be multinational’ - HSBC slogans in UK airports
Globalisation is adopted as a buzzword for marketing Suggests any business can thrive in a global economy Simultaneously ‘local knowledge’ is appealed to, as if we fear losing it Global growth is deified


HSBC advert
 
NEW GLOBAL MAPPING Growing dependence of environmental cause on scientific findings Surge of environmental concern in scientific circles NASA technology is put to use mapping global climate change Better mapping is hoped to help provide solutions to global problems Images produced can be emotional weapons to provoke action
 
2015 - National Geographic diagram of remote-sensors in orbit
‘The whole earth image continues to be read as self-evidently a benign source of knowledge that might contribute both to world peace and to ‘saving the earth,’ despite its symbolic relation to the history of Western knowledge and colonialism, its material connection to the massive technological apparatuses of a post-war imperial power, and its ambiguities as an interpretable text.’ - Kevin McGuirk, 1997
Sitting up in a spaceship Looking down at the earth You wonder What they’re all struggling for What’s it all really worth? Make tomorrow Make tomorrow Make tomorrow, today
— Peter Gabriel, Make Tomorrow, 2000