Ultimate Atlas

With Ultimate Atlas, Theo Deutinger architect, designer and author of the acclaimed Handbook of Tyranny illustrates the basic data of Earth and its inhabitants to create a total portrait of the planet. How can we keep track of everything that happens on the Earth? How can we share this information with its inhabitants, despite their different languages and cultural backgrounds? Expanding on the visions of Buckminster Fuller and Stewart Brand, Ultimate Atlas answers these questions by radically levelling graphic data.

Breaking down planet earth into 12 sections, the book gives a page spread to information pertaining to themes like ethnic groups, religions, nuclear warheads, and number of motor vehicles per country. The white pages of the book are divided by vertical black lines, in decreasing percentages from left to right. In this way Ultimate Atlas charts the planet with an impressive simplicity and clarity. The territorial size of Earth's countries; the planet's most commonly spoken languages; the places where the most chickens are raised; all this information is lucidly displayed for ready comprehension. Here is truly "planet earth in a book."

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About the Author

Theo Deutinger is an architect, writer and designer of socio-cultural studies. He is founder and head of TD, an office that combines architecture with research, visualisation and conceptual thinking in all scale levels from global planning, urban master plans, architecture to graphical and journalistic work. Deutinger has developed 'Snapshots of Globalization' being multilayered illustrations and maps that represent the world in this very particular moment. He is known for his writings about the transformation of Europe's urban culture through consummation and the influence of media.

Deutinger's work is frequently published in various magazines like Mark, Wired, Domus and has been exhibited at various occasions like the Future Fictions exhibition at Z33 in Hasselt (2014), 14th Architecture Biennale in Venice (2014) and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (2017). Theo Deutinger lectured and kept teaching engagements with institutions like the Bauhaus (Dessau) and Harvard GSD (Cambridge). Currently he is teaching at the Strelka Institute in Moscow and the University of Art and Design in Linz (Austria).