Wednesday, May 14, 2008

David Rumsey Maps & Inspiration

I got Lunar to brave the borky horror that was inworld late last night to visit the David Rumsey sim with its selections from his historical map collection presented in amazing ways such as this one of Yosemite...
My favorite was the 1792 "Globo Celeste" by Giovanni Maria Cassini, with its planetary orrery swirling below you as you glide by, surrounded by images of the heavens...
Here inworld, there is such potential for beauty and shared knowledge. For creators and thinkers and artists to inspire and share those inspirations with everyone...
Even when we feel at our smallest, we can bring something truly wonderful to this world.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this post - I hadn't heard of this!

The inspiration is a story by Borges:

"In that Empire, the Art of Cartography attained such Perfection that the map of a single Province occupied the entirety of a City, and the map of the Empire, the entirety of a Province. In time, those Unconscionable Maps no longer satisfied, and the Cartographers Guilds struck a Map of the Empire whose size was that of the Empire, and which coincided point for point with it. The following Generations, who were not so fond of the Study of Cartography as their Forebears had been, saw that that vast Map was Useless, and not without some Pitilessness was it, that they delivered it up to the Inclemencies of Sun and Winters. In the Deserts of the West, still today, there are Tattered Ruins of that Map, inhabited by Animals and Beggars; in all the Land there is no other Relic of the Disciplines of Geography." (source: http://tinyurl.com/92zvk)

HeadBurro Antfarm said...

Awww, I loved this place!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/headburroantfarm/with/2251636016/

HeadBurro Antfarm said...

I used it for a photo comp. I think... not sure if I won...