Home → Events → MERCATORLEZING XL: Bevroren zee en smeltend ijs. Cartografie van de Noordpool by Djoeke van Netten
MERCATORLEZING XL: Bevroren zee en smeltend ijs. Cartografie van de Noordpool by Djoeke van Netten
Sint-Niklaas,
BelgiumOrganisation: STeMClimate scientists and activists warn us not only with words, but also with maps, showing how in the near future sea levels will rise due to melting ice. In this lecture, we go back in the history of Arctic cartography, and Djoeke van Netten analyses how mapmakers in the early modern era visualised the High North. In a way, the North Pole was invented in the 16th century, when mapmakers like Ruysch, Waldseemüller and Mercator experimented with different projections to get the round globe on a flat sheet of paper. This story is about shape, and especially the consistency of the Arctic according to the maps, was there land or sea there, in frozen or liquid form? And how did that change when Western Europeans started sailing north? They did not find the hoped-for route to China, but what they did ‘discover’ had a great impact on cartography. In the end, it took until the early 20th century for the first human to stand at the North Pole, so all that time before that, maps were made of territory no one had ever seen! The end of the lecture goes to our modern times, what can we learn from early modern mapmakers? Both then and now, cartographers aim to warn and inspire, presenting a world largely born of imagination.Venue: Museumpaviljoen - STeMLanguage: DutchTime schedule: 20.00URL: https://www.museasintniklaas.be/activiteiten/mercatorlezing-[...]
