Projection in map-making, is the mathematical process of transference of 3D spherical shape, such as the earth, unto a flat piece of paper. The term "map projection" refers specifically to a cartographic projection. Although the Earth appears as a sphere, it is actually an oblate ellipsoid that bulges at the equator and gets flatter at the poles. Geodesists have adopted an ellipsoid model to determine latitude and longitude coordinates. It is not possible to a create two-dimensional „projection“ of a spherical object unto a rectangular plane without distortion: distortions of shape and size are inevitable. Projections of a (spherical) earth on a world map, on a plane, has been the map maker's dilemma par excellence, for millennia.
The northward bias is attributed to Claudius Ptolemy (born c. 100 CE—died c. 170 CE) – a Greek geographer, astronomer, mathematician, author, astrologer, and poet – who in the 2nd century created an 8 volume work, Geographia, wherein he drafted his pivotal world map with the North situated at the top. Ptolemy was one of the first to understand one of the central problems of geography: the problem of projections.
His book is the only book on cartography to have survived the classical period, and is revered as one of the most influential scientific works of all time. Ptolemy improved the treatment of projections and provided instructions on how to re-create his maps. His works were considered one of the best references on how to gather data and create maps, and were revived in the Renaissance by map-makers, who were able to make faithful reproductions of his maps.
The image many have of the world, is likely (mis)informed by versions of one of the most ubiquitous representations of our globe, the Mercator Projection Map. It was devised and used for nautical navigation, that ostensibly became the world’s most widely recognized map and commonly used maps, even until this day.
Gerardus Mercator’s projection was commissioned by the Pope in the 16th century for navigational use for the expansion of Christianity and its Empire, but was adopted, centuries on, inappropriately, for use as a world reference map.
• It is still one of the most widely taught maps in classrooms
• It has been attributed to purvey northward up bias
• It projects Eurocentric bias, by perpetuating racist, colonialist notions of (geographic) supremacy
The Mercator Map might have been celebrated by navigators five centuries ago, by virtue of its capacity to display the shortest distance between two points as a straight line on a flat piece of paper, but today, it has fallen in disrepute for multiple reasons:
• The Mercator cylindrical projection distorts the earth surface’s true formation, size, and shape
• Due to the linear scale increases with latitude, the geographical areas far from the equator always appear distorted
• This map projection grossly exaggerates the sizes of areas at the poles, like Antarctica, Greenland, which make them appear abnormally larger than they actually are: it dwarfs Africa in representation, making it 14 times smaller than it actually is
• The European continent appears to be as large as South America, when in fact, South America is twice the size of Europe in landmass
• The equator should actually traverse Florida, and not Indonesia, Brazil and the Congo
• Alaska appears as almost half the size of United States, yet in reality, its actually smaller than Mexico
• The map puts warped emphasis on Europe and North America, by placing them at the „top“ or „up“, and thusly creates map bias
• This map bias, illustrates why it is problematic to use this map as a tool for teaching basic geography, because it essentially embodies imperialistic, historic and geographic revisionism
• The Mercator map is an inappropriate, outdated relic of colonialism that needs to be relinquished, scrapped and junked to the dustbin of history
The iconographic Gall-Peters Map was a harbinger toward a radical shift away from ossified views and sparked intense debate on how our world view has been misinformed through maps that have been referent of an imperial project of domination. Arno Peters (1916-2002), was a 20th century German, Marxist historian who developed the Peters world map based on the mathematical projection formula by the 19th Century Scottish clergyman, James Gall. Peters pioneered and advocated for reversed orientation maps, or South-up maps as a means to sensitize against culturally-biased perception.
Gall described the projection in 1855 and published a paper on it in 1885. Peters made the projection widely-available to audiences roughly a century later. Both men are attributed today with this „equal area projection“, known as the Gall–Peters projection. It is characterized by proportionally-accurate landmass depiction. All countries are true in size in relation to each other, unlike on most maps. This projection displays distortion of shape stretched at the equator and squashed shapes towards the poles.
Peters, disillusioned with the Eurocentric bias of most maps, especially that of the Mercator map, became „driven by his conviction to create a more inclusive and equitable world”. He went on to develop his own namesake map which he published in 1974.
Peters was brought up in an activist household in Germany during the 1930s. His father, Bruno Peters, was a union member, and was imprisoned by the Nazi regime near the end of WWII. His family often hosted politically-active foreign visitors, such as William Pickens, of the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in the United States. Pickens inscribed a copy of his book, Bursting Bonds, and gave it to Peters' mother when Arno was 13 years old. Pickens' story of black liberation left a lasting impression on Peters' view of the world.
After getting his doctorate in history Peters felt that global maps such as the Mercator were racist: it painted “a fully false picture, particularly regarding the non-white-peopled lands...it over-values the white man and distorts the picture of the world to the advantage of the colonial masters of the time”.
For three decades, he worked on magnus opus, his 2-volume, Syncronoptic World History, which accords equal importance to all peoples, covering fully 5,000 years of the human story; all major cultures, every geographical area, and all civilizations receive equal treatment in his monumental geographic timeline.
To understand the world, you need an accurate image of the world. In order to overcome historical and political contradictions, it requires non-biased spatial knowledge. HoBo-Dyer maps set out to inform our spatial knowledge in the spirit of critical scholarship.
• Because we need maps that inform wiser spatial decision-making, promote inclusion and emancipation, as well as push back against civilising savagery / colonial legacies of representation that are projected with colonial-era maps
• Because ethically-created maps can provide means of resistance against erasure and of alienation
• By linking geographic knowledge with power, it becomes a means to challenge power
Equal area in maps, implies that a region of interest in a particular portion of a map will share the same proportion of area as in any other part of the map. Since there are no cylindrical projections without distortions, mapmakers have had to make compromises. This particular projection, has “zero distortion” of the standard parallels, at 37.5 degrees latitude north and south. The Hobo-Dyer keeps the true size of its features, but stretches the low latitudes vertically, at the compromise of greater distortion of shapes and angles at the poles. HoBo-Dyer also created „reversed maps“, with the South-up rather than the North-up orientation. Regions closer to the equator are displayed narrower than they actually are, and inversely, the polar regions are stretched sideways. The HoBo-Dyer map stretches the low latitudes vertically less than the Peters Map, but at the price of greater compression near the poles. It's widely considered the best compromise in comparable projections that can be achieved on a rectangular sheet of paper.