Air Force 1 High World Maps and World Views - Anti

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“Why a map is a window on to history”, BBC Magazine, 3 May 2010 (accessed 15 July 2010)
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A map of China made in 1136 presents an amazingly accurate outline of the country but depicts a river that does not exist: the purpose of the map is to trace the mythological history of China not to reflect geographic reality. Christian and Muslim world views had a direct effect on cartography [link widoczny dla zalogowanych], too: theological beliefs dictated the production of maps with Mecca or Jerusalem at their very centre. The famous antique map of Hereford Mappa Mundi depicts a world written by the finger of God.
Antique Maps and Aim of Cartography
It would not be right to label antique maps as “wrong” representations of the world: maps are mirrors of the preoccupations of the societies that created them. Antique maps are windows to a time when geographical accuracy was not part of the cartographer’s or map creator’s agenda. World maps reflected world views: the king’s divine right to rule and the magnificence of his dominions and conquests [link widoczny dla zalogowanych], or God’s omnipotence over earthly matters.
Rachel Campbell-Johnson, “Magnificent Maps at the British Library” [link widoczny dla zalogowanych], Times Online, 28 April 2010 (accessed 15 July 2010)
Though the aim of cartography is to precisely depict geographical reality, world maps still reflect world views. Historian Jerry Brotton writes: “In the past [maps] wanted us to accept a particular religion, or embrace a specific political ideology. Today they are more likely to be encouraging us to buy things as we zoom virtually around the globe. But that doesn’t mean they’re less powerful, or selective, than they’ve ever been.”
Maps are windows to world views: they reflect the needs and beliefs of the society which produced them. “Each society tends to get the world map they deserve,” writes historian Jerry Brotton. From antique maps to today’s sat nav maps and Google Earth, the products of cartography are far from objective representations of the world. World maps have always been subjected to selective representation, manipulation and distortion. They reflect society’s changing world views.
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Geographical accuracy has not always been the aim of cartography. Nowhere else is this more obvious than in antique maps: they are propaganda tools; works of art; theological statements. Antique maps enhance a political ideology, a theological belief; they are status symbols and persuasive tools: cartography in the service of ideology and imagination.
World Views and World Maps
Today’s maps purport to be scientific, practical tools that help their users to get from A to B. But subjectivity and distortion of reality are still true for maps today as it was in the past. Imagination still plays a role in cartography. Google Earth consciously manipulates the image of the earth to mimic how people imagine the globe in space. One cannot square the circle.