Preview
Date
2002
Description
Three maps with accompanying bases. Text on base:
"The fold-up globe is based on R. Buckminster Fuller’s world map. Fuller created several world maps in his attempt to create a visually accurate flat rendition of a spherical globe. His final version was based on the icosahedron, a polyhedron with 20 equilateral faces. Fuller first published his icosahedral version of the map in 1954. This cloud-free satellite image that fold-up into a globe is based on his icosahedron world map.
All flat world map representations of a spherical globe contain some amount of distortion whether in shape, area, distance or direction measurements. On the well-known Mercator world map, Greenland appears to be three times its corresponding globe size and Antartica appears as a long thin white stripe along the bottom edge of the map. Even the popular Robinson Projection, now used in many schools, still contains a large amount of distortion with Greenland 60 percent larger that its corresponding globe size.
If a world map represents visually obvious distortions of our world, then our perceptions and presumptions become distorted.Every project must make certain compromises as information is transferred from a spherical globe to a flat surface. As early as 1927 R. Buckminster Fuller began to search for a develop an accurate 2-dimensional world map. The Fuller projection enables us to visualize the planet’s surface in a single view without visually obvious distortions in the shape and size of landmasses.”
Object Number
AM.0391
Box Number
01
Material
card stock
Dimensions
3 items; approximately 12.7 x 25.4 cm (5 x 10 inches )
Origin
gift of Thomas Zung
Keywords
Arthur Loeb Design Science Teaching Collection; cartographic materials; Fuller projection (cartography)