{"id":729,"date":"2013-05-14T22:45:23","date_gmt":"2013-05-14T22:45:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tumblwise.cynwise.com\/?p=729"},"modified":"2014-08-05T11:29:07","modified_gmt":"2014-08-05T11:29:07","slug":"luthvian-tinbox-we-are-star-stuff-who-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tumblwise.cynwise.com\/?p=729","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-729 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/tumblwise.cynwise.com\/?attachment_id=730#main'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/tumblwise.cynwise.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/tumblr_mmntl4XMit1qcbrp0o1_1280-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/luthvian.tumblr.com\/post\/50450748767\/tinbox-we-are-star-stuff-who-says-north-is\" class=\"tumblr_blog\">luthvian<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><a class=\"tumblr_blog\" href=\"http:\/\/tinbox.tumblr.com\/post\/50359028686\/we-are-star-stuff-who-says-north-is-up-upside\">tinbox<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><a class=\"tumblr_blog\" href=\"http:\/\/we-are-star-stuff.tumblr.com\/post\/50356958393\/who-says-north-is-up-upside-down-maps-also\">we-are-star-stuff<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h1 class=\"firstHeading\" id=\"firstHeading\"><strong>Who says North is up?<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>Upside Down maps (also known as South-Up or Reversed maps) offer a completely different perspective of the world we live in.<\/p>\n<p>Technically speaking, even referring to the earth with words like \u201cup\u201d or \u201cdown\u201d or comparing places with words \u201cabove\u201d or \u201cbelow\u201d is flawed, considering that the earth is a spherical body (it\u2019s actually slightly \u201cfatter\u201d at the equator) and flying through 3 dimensional space with no reference of up or down.\u00a0<span>However, the issue of \u201cup\u201d and \u201cdown\u201d does become an issue when viewing the surface of the earth projected onto a flat piece of paper (a map). And the effect of the orientation of a map is more significant than you might realize.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>As all maps require orientation for reference, the issue of how to layout the map orientation is as old as maps themselves. As map orientation is completely arbitrary, it is not surprising that they differed throughout time periods and regions.<\/p>\n<p>The convention of North-up is usually attributed to the Egyptian astronomer Ptolemy (90-168 AD). Justifications for his north-up approach vary.\u00a0<span>In the middle ages, East was often placed at top. This is the origin of the term \u201cThe Orient\u201d to refer to East Asia. During the age of exploration, European cartographers again followed the north-up convention\u2026perhaps because the North Star was their fixed reference point for navigation, or because they wanted (subconsciously or otherwise) to ensure Europe\u2019s claim at the top of the world.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>In modern times, reversed maps are made as a learning device or to illustrate\u00a0Northern Hemisphere\u00a0bias. Different from simply turning a north-up map upside down, a reversed map has the text oriented to be read with south up.<\/p>\n<p>The famous \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Blue_Marble\" title=\"The Blue Marble\">Blue Marble<\/a>\u201d photograph of the Earth taken from on board\u00a0Apollo 17\u00a0was originally oriented with the south pole at the top, with the island of\u00a0Madagascar\u00a0visible just left of center, and the continent of\u00a0Africa\u00a0at its right. However, the image was turned upside-down to fit the traditional view.<\/p>\n<p>While the orientation of a map might seem harmless, it can have a significant effect on one\u2019s perception of the world, and the relative importance of the different place in it.<\/p>\n<p>In speech, we <a href=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-Cr6SYy9JV84\/UNDpN2Zpt2I\/AAAAAAAAAQM\/RNwoUembELQ\/s640\/mafalda.jpg\">often<\/a> refer to places being \u201cabove\u201d or \u201cbelow\u201d others. Think of how you would say you\u2019re about to travel to the state or country to your north or south (to go \u201cdown\u201d to Kentucky from Indiana, or \u201cup\u201d to Canada from the US). Without even mentioning geography, ask any grade school student whether Mexico is \u201cabove\u201d or \u201cbelow\u201d the United States. We\u2019re all familiar with the \u201cland down under\u201d. As we often correlate importance to relative height (think how a citizens of a country will fly their flag higher than all other flags), the north-up convention reinforces the idea that northern bodies are more important than their southern neighbors. Suddenly, traveling \u201cdown\u201d to the South might have an inference much deeper than geographic location.<\/p>\n<p><span>After looking at the map more closely, you may realize that the South-Up orientation may change your perception of the relative status of different places. For example, South America suddenly looks to have more prominence, and Africa and the Middle East completely dwarf Europe. Likewise, tucking Northern Europe, Canada, and Russia away at the bottom of the map, subconsciously takes away their status.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><span>To summarize, unconditionally accepting the north-up map convention without at least appreciating the effect stands at odds with viewing all people and places within the world equally.<\/span>\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Reversed_map\">x<\/a><span> <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.upside-down-maps.com\/about.html\">x<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Ha! I was just thinking about this the other day, and look what turns up on my dash! Also: the Prime Meridian.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>THIS IS THAT MAP AAAAAAH!!!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>luthvian: tinbox: we-are-star-stuff: Who says North is up? Upside Down maps (also known as South-Up or Reversed maps) offer a completely different perspective of the world we live in. Technically speaking, even referring to the earth with words like \u201cup\u201d or \u201cdown\u201d or comparing places with words \u201cabove\u201d or \u201cbelow\u201d is flawed, considering that the <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/tumblwise.cynwise.com\/?p=729\">[&hellip;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","hentry","category-uncategorized","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tumblwise.cynwise.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tumblwise.cynwise.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tumblwise.cynwise.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tumblwise.cynwise.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tumblwise.cynwise.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=729"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/tumblwise.cynwise.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":731,"href":"http:\/\/tumblwise.cynwise.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729\/revisions\/731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tumblwise.cynwise.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tumblwise.cynwise.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tumblwise.cynwise.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}