Dr. read it. Elephant. Daniel Arnett
The whole globe is greenish on glossy paper, large, heavy: this is how the atlas usually presents itself. Once I carried something like this across town: 5.9 kg! Then I felt the full meaning of the Greek word “atlas”: “to bear”, “to bear”. In ancient myths, Atlas was a giant who lost the fight between Zeus and Cronos and was punished by carrying heaven on his back – the Atlas Mountains from Tunisia to Morocco are named after him.
James Cheshire and Oliver Operty wrote in the recently published Invisible Atlas that “Atlases have represented what people have seen for centuries: roads, rivers, and mountains.” “Today we need graphics to reveal the unseen patterns that shape our lives.” In 64 maps, the two show where we’ve come from, how we’re doing and what lies ahead – from past migration flows to information flows from the present to future hot flashes.
The authors are proven experts: Cheshire is a geographer and professor of cartography at University College London, Operty used to be the photo editor at National Geographic and now lives in Los Angeles. In 2015, the British Cartographic Society awarded its first collaboration, ‘London: The Information Capital’, the Outstanding Cartographic Award. Animal Trails was awarded the 2017 Edward Stanford Travel Writing Award in the Innovation category.
But this innovation is based on tradition: Cheshire and Uberti refer to the German explorer Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859). The two wrote: “Humboldt knew that his eloquence would not be enough.” “You had to see the ‘living whole’ to believe it.” So Humboldt commissioned his friend Heinrich Berghaus (1797-1884) to produce an atlas to illustrate his universe of world experiences.
The first part of the “Physical Atlas” appeared in 1838 and was completed in 1848 with 75 maps – Berghaus and Humboldt redefined what an atlas could be. The outlines of places that have filled atlases for centuries give way to poetic views of the work of nature. The Physical Atlas is the first to seek to discover the world not by asking where or who owns something, but by explaining how and why, according to Cheshire and Uberti.
The authors continue: “Like Humboldt and Berghaus for nearly 200 years, we want to show patterns, not places.” For example, strokes of different thicknesses that resemble art drawing with charcoal. But they do show CO2 emissions. Cheshire and Oberte: “The transatlantic flight and back causes the same amount of carbon dioxide2Emissions like eating meat for two years, like eight years without recycling, or four lifetime supplies of plastic bags.”
James Cheshire / Oliver Operty, “Atlas of the Invisible – Maps and Drawings That Change the Way We See the World”, Hanser
Down to work! by Daniel Arnett
“Explorer. Communicator. Music geek. Web buff. Social media nerd. Food fanatic.”
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