The 14-foot globe shows the material infrastructures that physically shape and connect the world. Recessed areas represent places we know little about, as evidenced by the Malaysian Airlines disappearance, noted a curator.
“The globe is actually upside-down, and it recalls the views of ‘The Blue Marble’ (photos from space), which was a kind of view of the world from Africa,” said Joyce Hsiang, pointing out the sphere’s subtle etchings of road networks, Internet cables, transmission lines and shipping routes. Urban centers are densely packed, of course.
The exhibition includes a 52-foot-long topography model on the floor near the sphere that — with spikes of acrylic — illustrates population centers. It’s another thought-provoking visual that, curators say, draws upon discussions of the “Anthropocene,” an epoch in which human activity is permanently transforming the world. At some point, the exhibition makes one ponder global development.
On the walls around the exhibition space are 255 feet of panoramic murals that look at facets of urbanization across land, air and water. There are also photos of core samples of the Earth’s surface examining the depth of human activity. (And you thought TV’s “The Bachelor” or “Big Brother” represent the depth of human activity.) ...
Noted architect Robert A.M. Stern, dean of the architecture school and commenting during the press preview recently, said the exhibition addresses a favorite theme of academics: intersciplinarity. Bringing all these experts together in a show “is quite unusual; you will not find many exhibitions that represent this range ...”
Like its depiction of urban population centers, the show can be a bit dense.
“This is a highly brainy exhibition, I would say. It’s an attempt to make some really complicated ideas visual,” Stern said. “I personally hope little kids will come here and just be inspired by the models; they love models. We’re nervous they’ll want to take little bits of population home ...”