AMBIENCE XVIII

Sašo Sedlaček

1974, Ljubljana

Globe Heaters & The World of Maps According to Buckminster Fuller, 2010

Production: International Centre of Graphic Arts, MGLC, Ljubljana

Courtesy of the artist

Globe Heater is a visualization of the world that fears the overheating of the planet and the collapse of the natural balance. It is also an illustration of the egoism and privileges of the rich countries. According to Buckminster Fuller, all standard world maps in use today are unfair, because they privilege wealthier nations whose territories appear less distorted than other parts of the globe.

Globe Heater is on display together with Fuller’s Dymaxion Map, which bears witness to the unjust representation in standard projections, in which first-world countries are less distorted than other regions. Fuller was very critical of the traditional Mercator design, as this cylindrical projection of the world, which has become the norm, most distorts territories located further south or north of the two current global centers.

Fuller offered a solution to these problems in 1946, and named it the Dymaxion Map, which can be assembled in solid form from twenty triangles. It has no real top or bottom, can be composed in a number of ways, and distorts the territories of the world more fairly than other projections. It is simple and elegant idea, and corresponds to today’s geopolitically changed world better than standard approaches to cartography.