Mapparium

Christian Science World Headquarters
Massachusetts Avenue, Boston

Relatives were in town for the Presidents’ Day weekend and we ventured over to the Mapparium at the Christian Science World Headquarters in Boston. It’s a tourist site and one might argue that it doesn’t exactly belong in an arts diary, but, to tell the truth, I find the thing beautiful in a quaint way.

For those who don’t know about this work – it’s a scale inverted glass replica of the globe that one walks inside via a gangway. It’s as though one is at the center looking out, but all the print is directed inwards. It was built in 1935 and conveys the color and design of the era. If you liked the Indiana Jones movies and their esthetic charms, you would probably like the Mapparium. The whole thing is glass, and the guide details with some specificity how complicated it was for the fabricators to create panels with multiple colors (apparently, the Italiy panel was the most challenging, since it and its surrounding countries required many colors). The colors are deep and viivid and the typography is charming. It’s also cool to look at some of the old country names – Siam, French West Africa, and so on – and to muse on our evolving world.

There are also interesting auditory effects from being inside the spherical space – one can stand at opposite doors of the room and whisper audibly to the opposite side. At the center, everything reverberates in a stirring way. The only problem is that they give you a relatively short visit for the $6 admission fee, so you have to do your auditory experimentation efficiently before they kick you out.

– BADMan