Hi Dave,
I didn't see that bit though I did watch a few Games things.
I'm not sure about my conceptual map. I think my 'map' places where I live at
'the centre' (but of what?). I suppose how could it not.
Let's say everyday I see the weather report on TV and it's all about
Sydney and
NSW and then Australia. And all that is familiar in shape and outline, the
sound of suburbs and towns - pronounced how we say it, not anyone else. And
it's the right season (autumn at the moment) ... and all that. I'm sure most
have the same feeling wherever they live. Yep, I'm here in Sydney and it might
rain tomorrow, etc etc.
Then, if you're on a channel that does world weather (does this ever happen
outside Australia, I wonder?), you get the big pan out to a spinning
representation of 'the world', starting with NZ, of course, then back up to SE
Asia and China/Japan and then back through India and round, ending up in North
America/Canada (I don't think poor old Hawaii gets a look in on this
particular
channel - it's how Tasmania often feels).
So, wow, there's the world and though it starts with us, of course, we're
definitely down here on the bottom bit.
I'm trying to articulate a feeling of locality within the bigger context and
it's probably sounding wrong, or silly.
It's an old joke here to have maps printed with Australia on top ("I
come from a
land down under ..." and all that twaddle). And real Australian maps
will centre
our continent (island) so there's Europe and Africa on the left and the
Americas
way over to the right, the big spread of Asia to the upper left and the Indian
Ocean underneath (means more to West Australians), and the lovely Pacific blue
(very Sydney east coast of me) with all those islands and sweeps of
archipelagoes taking up a lot of space to the right before you get to the
Americas bit.
That's how I remember it in school (and, of course, Australia was/is pink like
all British Empire, oops, Commonwealth countries). Even in Australia, the big
coastal cities all face different oceans and are close to different places.
Perth faces west to Africa, up Singapore way, to India and feels way different
to Darwin which is closer to PNG, Timor and Indonesia than it is to Sydney
which faces out east to NZ and the Pacific and northish to China/Japan (sort
of).
So I wonder what I would have thought about that globe.
Thanks I'll keep on pondering,
Jill
Quoting David Bircumshaw <[log in to unmask]>:
>
> I was fascinated, Jill, by one thing from the end of the Commonwealth games,
> where a rotating upside-down globe was shown, with Australia highlighted and
> +at the top+. I noticed how odd it felt but also how +right+ it was, because
> from Sydney or Melbourne that is how the world +looks+, even though the
> conceptual map one carries says otherwise.
>
> All the Best
>
> Dave
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