In doing research for the post on Boris Artzybasheff’s Maps I came across mention of a movie – Expanding World Relationships – created by State Department Geographer S.W. Boggs. Boggs allegedly used Artzybasheff as a consultant. This old map movie also relates to Matt Wilson’s book New Lines, where he goes into maps, movement, and cinema.
Timothy Barney’s book Mapping the Cold War (2015), using quotes from manuscript sources, suggests that Artzybasheff and Boggs had discussed using creative map animations with aliens for the movie (see quotes at the end of this posting).
I’m all for maps and aliens.
I could not find Expanding World Relationships anywhere on the internets. If the movie actually had Artzybasheff aliens and maps it would be a great find. I eventually found a copy of the movie in an archive of old public domain movies.
Unfortunately, no aliens and no Artzybasheff. Dammit.
What we do have is a 10 minute animated movie (clips and full movie embedded below) that captures S.W. Boggs’ cold war global vision. Too bad he couldn’t get Artzybasheff or Edes Harrison to create the artwork. My guess, these top-shelf illustrators were too expensive compared to the hack animators who ended up creating the movie.
The cheesy music and wobbly frames add authentic patina to what is actually a good example of a mid-century animated map movie. Importantly, there are various data (“thematic”) maps in the movie – of telecommunications, resources, economic factors – not just the typical armies marching around and ships sailing across the ocean (although there are some of those).
My favorite is an animation of building a “doomed to fail” wall – in this case, tariffs. But the clip has some relevance to contemporary issues:
An animated telephone handset map (a still opens this post) is another minor gem, suggesting that growing telecommunications are bringing the world closer together:
An animated map comparing different forms of transportation, and their increasingly global reach, uses a curved bar graph animation to make its point:
Finally, a projected map shows insets (a bit difficult to discern) of graduated symbol maps, showing industrial growth in different parts of the world along with resource development (rubber, tin, tungsten, cobalt, chromium):
Here is the entire movie for your perusal:
Expanding World Relationships (1947) from John Krygier on Vimeo.
The quotes below are from Timothy Barney, (Re)Placing America: Cold War Mapping And The Mediation Of International Space, Dissertation, University of Maryland, 2011. Direct PDF download here. Published as Mapping the Cold War: Cartography and the Framing of America’s International Power, 2015.
“Another example of Boggs reaching beyond traditional conceptions of geography was in his work for an animated educational film, for which he served as consultant and for which he also recruited Artzybasheff. The 1947 film, entitled Expanding World Relationships, was produced through Springer Pictures, and was later distributed internationally through the United States Information Agency. The picture is a fascinating mid-century textual artifact designed to grapple with the new global relations of the United States in a changed post-war landscape, and emphasizing the role of perspective itself. In one production memorandum to Artzybasheff, for example, Boggs expresses his thought process in designing an appropriate air-age global perspective for educational objectives. Boggs proposes that Artzybasheff design for the film a series of scenes where aliens approach the earth from a rocket ship, gaining a ‘bird’s eye view’ of the earth as they descend toward it. What the aliens find when they explore earth is a ‘strong indication that man may not have sense enough to organize his affairs’ and ‘they end up with a very factual, realistic picture of the world as it is, especially as the relations between peoples in different parts of the world…have changed very unequally.’ Boggs goes on to talk about the benefits of using this alien perspective to ‘attract the interest of anybody’ and to show how humans must gain a better bird’s-eye view and knowledge of the earth before they commit ‘racial suicide.’ Here we see the brand of idealism behind Boggs’ approach—that better spatial knowledge can somehow ‘save’ us.” (Barney, 2011, p. 189-191)
Jon- I’m sure you know about this, but just in case:
https://library.syr.edu/digital/guides/a/artzybasheff_b.htm
Cheers.
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