THE ATLAS

For this piece I concentrated on the Atlas as a book of physical geography rather than political geography, as I wanted to consider the body as a physical entity rather than a political one.

The starting point was a well-known quotation from the work of the metaphysical poet John Donne – ‘no man is an island, entire of itself’. Obviously, the man here is an island, self-contained and isolated as each person is in their own body, family, community or nation. However this self-containment and isolation are illusions, for islands as well as for people.

Geographically speaking, an island might lie far from any other land mass and might have remained isolated long enough for its wildlife and vegetation to have acquired unique characteristics like, say, the Galapagos Islands when visited by Charles Darwin around the time he wrote The Origin Of Species. However, islands are connected beneath the sea to other land masses and are actually mountain tops and plateaus that happen to be above sea level. They are also connected to the rest of the world by the climate – the constant circulation of air, water and pollution. The life that lives on islands is part of the planetary ecosystem and so is affected by migration, colonisation and invasion, whether by plants, animals, people or diseases. The self-containment and isolation of islands and of the communities that inhabit them are further refuted by the view of the earth from space as a single biosphere, and by the economic and political imperatives that drive globalisation.

Socially, everyone, however apparently independent, is a part of a family or community, however diffuse. The consequences of isolation tend towards loneliness, anger, despair, self-loathing and murder/suicide. Whether in isolated rural communities, sprawling conurbations, gated communities or ghettos, everyone needs to feel included and valued.

Biologically, the body is not a sealed or closed system either, and changes constantly depending on what we ingest and what we expel. What we breathe, eat and drink becomes part of us, part of the chemistry of our bodies, our brains and our consciousness. What we excrete and discard goes back to become part of the world again. This connects us with the land, the water, the air and with the rest of life on earth.