Arno Peters – Radical Map, Remarkable Man.
Arno Peters may have created a stir in the cartographic world – who cares! Take a look at this new DVD from ODTmaps and it will make an impression on you.
On first opening the DVD and playing the main feature, I felt the product had a good basic quality. After watching that part and delving into the added bonus material, I realised there is much more to this than the initial perceptions.
The main feature presents a good background and provides information on Arno Peters’ outlook and political interests. These explain much about his reasoning for his development and promotion of the infamous projection and need to be understood. His principles are without question championing fairness for the peoples of the world. Direct and self opinionated, Dr Peters latched on to the fact that the existing projections, especially that of Mercator, distorted the depiction of the earth’s surface, whilst overlooking the fact that his does also! However, once you understand what he is trying to do, the promotion of his apparently new projection did and does serve an important service to those organisations that operate in and the countries of the equatorial latitudes of our world. I say ‘apparently’ because there is still debate about the claimed unique qualities of the projection. The organisations who are looking to raise awareness of the problems of the countries referred to above embraced the Peter’s Projection and derived maps, to show the relative size of countries in a fair light. It was great PR for such organisations.
I come back to the point about use of projections, just to be boring!! Remember all projections have their place. ‘Equal Area’ are good for spatial awareness. ‘Equi Distance’ are good for length of distances and so on. Schematic maps such as the London Tube map and like derivations serve the purpose of displaying the information in an appreciable and clear manner. The closest we get to depict the Earth on one map (the quest by Arno Peters) is a globe, preferably with its poles slightly squashed. However this is difficult to carry around and so the age old problem of showing the curved earth’s surface on a flat image is the compromise provided by the various projections, including that used by Peters. One thing that he did not sign up to is the fact that ‘size isn’t everything’.
OK! – that’s it from me – the debate can go on and on for all I care. I’m more interested in the actual DVD itself.
The production and publication of the product is important. I feel it gives a balanced view, especially in the main feature, of the Peter’s Projection and it’s impact on the cartographic world and where it should or could be used. I think the projection is now part of our mapping heritage and better understood and I believe this DVD will spread the word. The main point to remember is to use the right tools for the job. Arno Peters had his political agenda and he just used the correct tool for his purpose.
If you look at the added features, such as the ‘Out takes’, you wonder if AP realised what he had started. Did he care? Almost certainly not. His ego was large but this is what it takes to promote anything that is radical. He does have a sense of humour – take o look at ‘Working relationships’ I hope Franz Huber has a sense of humour also!!
The ‘Movie Trailer’ is disturbing, especially ‘War Made Easy’ and it also exposes the ‘Hollywood myths’. It is full of political views and statements and you wonder what is their relevance to Peters? It is very US centric, understandably but does also expose the propaganda machine that exists in our world. This is a direct opposite to what Arno Peters preaches as he deplored imperialistic propaganda.
There is good background information, promoting human rights and the radio clips reinforce the message of Peters. Incidentally they also enforce the message that you should choose the correct projection for the appropriate theme!! – sorry – just slipped back into ‘grumpy’ mode.
I first became familiar with the Peters Projection when Lovell Johns was commissioned to work on the atlas in collaboration with Oxford Cartographers many years ago. I met Arno Peters at the atlas launch party and felt privileged to do so. He was a remarkable man indeed and quite a notorious celebrity at the time.
To summarise, you must see this production by ODT. The effort and obvious devotion to the task in hand is admirable and congratulations to all involved, especially Bob and Ruth Abramms. I give my best support to ODT in their endeavours. The whole DVD itself is something you can dip into or get completely immersed, as I did. When approached to review it I thought, Oh no! I have not got the time, I need to spray the roses and I have a golf game tomorrow! When I did knuckle down, I was glad to have been asked and I hope you all will be moved to spend a little time looking and appreciating the message of Ruth and Bob and being enlightened by the DVD, Arno Peters – Radical Map, Remarkable Man.
Ben Hill. FBCS; Past President of British Cartographic Society
Director of Lovell Johns, UK.
