BP8

BP8
                                          A Three Dimensional Language

As simplistic as we might consider the globe map to be today, I believe it still speaks volumes as to the unifying language that is the world.

(This picture was found at: http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=world+globe&view=detail&id=33277A8F3F8A1271702D0E650EBE173E283899A

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To conceptualize the immense changes that came from the creation of the Globe map, is to have lived in a world without the computer.   I don't think it is possible for our brains to grasp even a tenth of the importance, significance, and connotations that came with and as a result of this tool, this three dimmensional object, given the rammifications and capabilities of the modern computer.   But, taking a stark look at it (the globe) today, right now, it can still provide glimmers of the wonder and fascination it must have caused back through the ages.   Moreover, it did not simply provide the knowledge of other languages out there, it itself is language.

The Globe channels us to listen to its wisdom, to hear its story, and it does this through its shape, its layers, its detail, and especially through its movement.  

When we look at a globe, immediately we receognize that it is interactive, it desires participation, and we recognize this from its shape.   It is a circle, certainly, which makes it continuous, balanced, repetitive, but because it is three dimensional, it not only cubes these values, our brains interpret it as a touchable experience.  A globe screams "play with me."

Its layers provide history.   The forms on a globe are not geometrically arranged, but because of this, they beg the user to investigate the arrangements that are displayed.   What do the arrangements say?   What do they mean?  They are tectonic, but they are a rhythm that weaves through the whole unit, and these forms are words of interpretations.

The details on the globe provide color, symbols.   The land forms rise up out of the long vast sections of blue, like words between the spaces of white on a page.   The cause interest and inspection.

And finally, the globe's language is better understood through is functional movement.   A globe turns, it rotates, and we know this.   But is spinning a globe really any different than turning to the next page of a book?  Its repetitive nature keeps these "words" in constant circulation, and its language continues today (and because it is so interactive) and will even tomorrow.