WORLDPROCESSOR WEEKLY: Forest Fires [159]

Monday, October 25, 2010

Forest Fires [159]

In spring 1998 uncontrolled forest fires raged in the equatorial regions. Airplanes crashed in Indonesia, Smoke plumes reached across national borders into other countries and even continents. One day the loss of forest the size of Belgium in Brazil was reported. El Nino was generally blamed for the lack of rain.

The Planetary Condition: Notes on Globes

Many of the conditions and factors that we accept as constituents of reality can be considered quantifiable. ‘International Trade Currents’ or ‘Fresh Water Reserves’ are easily recorded in numbers, however, data sets do not necessarily come in color or form and shape. In the absence of a visual Esperanto - and while avoiding icons as much as possible - every globe requires the invention of a new code in order to represent the data appropriately and effectively. But what about important, yet somehow impossible to quantify issues, such as elegance, love, flavor, temptation, despair, hope...? I am challenged by the incomprehensibility of the world’s totality.

In 1921 already the Grand Old Man of documentary film making, Robert Flaherty, would arrange every scene in his documentary, because reality and truth need to be created specifically for the medium that documents it. There is no straight naked truth, as much as we would want it.

Art has been called ‘The lie that tells the truth’. It rings true to me, but I take no artistic license when it comes to choosing, representing or rendering the data. I make a conscious effort to let the data speak and not to make a personal statement. The 'just facts' approach is inspired by journalistic neutrality, The sources are institutions, governments, factbooks, newspapers, magazines. Most of the data is publicly available and from established and bona-fide sources. However, I am constantly confronted with incompatible and incomparable datasets: The statistical methods are different from culture to country and, most often, the time frame covered as well. Criteria are likely to vary from year to year and, worse still, there is a lack of data for a few countries and entire regions – many of which did not exist only a few years ago and, thus, do not even have a statistical history.

Leibniz is said to have been the last man to hold the entire body of knowledge of his time. Decades ago ‘planetary technologies’ as Heidegger called them, empowered mankind beyond emotional, sensual, and moral capacities. . . Today, we as individuals only know a fraction of the body of knowledge, therefore we need the artificial overview and navigational tools to grasp our world intellectually and emotionally. Even though over 500 years old - the globe is not fading away...

Ingo Gunther

WORLDPROCESSOR WEEKLY

Monday, October 25, 2010

Forest Fires [159]

Monthly Archive

All images are © Ingo Gunther / Worldspace Corporation.

The Planetary Condition: Notes on Globes

WORLDPROCESSOR WEEKLY

Monday, October 25, 2010

Forest Fires [159]

Monthly Archive

All images are © Ingo Gunther / Worldspace Corporation.

The Planetary Condition: Notes on Globes

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