Global Map for Global War and Global Peace.
ANTONIO PETRUCELLI/ ALUMINUM CO. OF AMERICA
Published: 1943, New York
Size: 24" X 33.5"
Description:
A rare polar projection map of the world published by the Aluminum Company of America at the height of the Second World War which forces the viewer to rethink how the world is seen and comprehended.
The map is adorned at its borders with different squadron insignias for aircraft wings and rudders of the different countries involved in the global conflict. Inset maps also surround the polar projection with notations explaining the differences between the Mercator and Azimuthal Equidistant projections and the superiority of the latter when it comes to determining distances in the age of air travel. For example, one of the insets, states, ironically in a an age of conflict how:
“Nothing so clearly demonstrates the fact that the aeroplane changes our earth-bound ideas as a map like this. The air is a universal highway. Flying routes naturally go across, not around. The peoples of the world will benefit from the great promise of commercial aviation to the extent that men of good will in all counties work out the practical means whereby Freedom of the Air can be made to bring the good things of the world to our firesides.”
Other insets also develop the theme of the future potential benefits and opportunities that air transportation will offer and of the importance of the technological advances of aluminum in the fabrication of the aviation program. The verso of the map has more detailed information on the airplanes themselves, the different US military insignias and the different aluminum components that go into the production of airplanes.
The map thus serves as a great reminder that military conflicts sometimes bring about geo-political, social and economic changes, as well as providing a theatre, albeit macabre, where new technologies are advanced and introduced to everyday life. It also forces, as this map points out, the viewer to sometimes change their perspective on how the world is viewed. With this particular depiction, the viewer is asked to see the world in an Azimuthal Equidistant projection because it offers a better way in understanding the rapidly declining distances between two points made possible by new routes that only aviation allows. The North Pole is thus no longer seen as an impediment to travel as it once did for much of human history. Rather, it is but the physical distance between two points.
ANTONIO PETRUCELLI/ ALUMINUM CO. OF AMERICA
Published: 1943, New York
Size: 24" X 33.5"
Description:
A rare polar projection map of the world published by the Aluminum Company of America at the height of the Second World War which forces the viewer to rethink how the world is seen and comprehended.
The map is adorned at its borders with different squadron insignias for aircraft wings and rudders of the different countries involved in the global conflict. Inset maps also surround the polar projection with notations explaining the differences between the Mercator and Azimuthal Equidistant projections and the superiority of the latter when it comes to determining distances in the age of air travel. For example, one of the insets, states, ironically in a an age of conflict how:
“Nothing so clearly demonstrates the fact that the aeroplane changes our earth-bound ideas as a map like this. The air is a universal highway. Flying routes naturally go across, not around. The peoples of the world will benefit from the great promise of commercial aviation to the extent that men of good will in all counties work out the practical means whereby Freedom of the Air can be made to bring the good things of the world to our firesides.”
Other insets also develop the theme of the future potential benefits and opportunities that air transportation will offer and of the importance of the technological advances of aluminum in the fabrication of the aviation program. The verso of the map has more detailed information on the airplanes themselves, the different US military insignias and the different aluminum components that go into the production of airplanes.
The map thus serves as a great reminder that military conflicts sometimes bring about geo-political, social and economic changes, as well as providing a theatre, albeit macabre, where new technologies are advanced and introduced to everyday life. It also forces, as this map points out, the viewer to sometimes change their perspective on how the world is viewed. With this particular depiction, the viewer is asked to see the world in an Azimuthal Equidistant projection because it offers a better way in understanding the rapidly declining distances between two points made possible by new routes that only aviation allows. The North Pole is thus no longer seen as an impediment to travel as it once did for much of human history. Rather, it is but the physical distance between two points.
