South-up map orientation is the orientation of a map with south up, or at the top of the map, amounting to a 180-degree rotation of the map from the standard convention of north-up. Maps in this orientation are sometimes called upside down maps or reversed maps. Other maps with non-standard orientation include T and O maps, polar maps, and Dymaxion maps.
Psychological significance
Research suggests that north-south positions on maps have psychological consequences. In general, north is associated with richer people, more expensive real estate, and higher altitude, while south is associated with poorer people, cheaper prices, and lower altitude. When participants were presented with south-up oriented maps, this north-south bias disappeared. Researchers posit the observed association between map-position and goodness/badness is caused by the combination of the convention of consistently placing north at the top of maps, and a much more general association between vertical position and goodness/badness, which has been documented in numerous contexts. For example, Pope Francis used the term "true north" as a metaphor for authentic values: "If we want a future of prosperity for all, we need to keep our compass pointing toward 'true North', in the direction of authentic values." Common English idioms support the notion that many English speakers conflate or associate north-with-up and south-with-down, a conflation that can only be understood as learned by repeated exposure to a particular map-orientation convention. Related idioms used in popular song lyrics provide further evidence for the pervasiveness of "north-south bias" among English speakers, in particular with regard to wealth. Examples include, using "Uptown" to mean "high class or rich", or using "Downtown" to convey lower socioeconomic status
Cultural diversity and media literacy educators use south-up oriented world maps to help students viscerally experience the frequently disorienting effect of seeing something familiar from a different perspective. Having students consider the privileged position given to the Northern hemisphere on most world maps can help students confront their more general potential for culturally biased perceptions. , drawn by al-Idrisi for Roger II of Sicily in 1154, is a south-up map and one of the most advanced maps of the pre-modern world.
History of south-up oriented maps as political statements
Throughout history, maps have been made with varied orientations, and reversing the orientation of maps is technically very easy to do. As such, some cartographers maintain that the issue of south-up map orientation is itself trivial. More noteworthy than the technical matter of orientation, per se, is the history of explicitly using south-up map orientation as a political statement, that is, creating south-up oriented maps with the express rationale of reacting to the north-up oriented world maps that have dominated map publication during the modern age. The history of south-up map orientation as political statement can be traced back to the early 1900s. Joaquín Torres García, a Uruguayan modernist painter, created one of the first maps to make a political statement related to north-south map positions entitled "América Invertida". "Torres-García placed the South Pole at the top of the earth, thereby suggesting a visual affirmation of the importance of the continent." A popular example of a south-up oriented map designed as a political statement is "McArthur's Universal Corrective Map of the World". An insert on this map explains that the Australian, Stuart McArthur, sought to confront "the perpetual onslaught of 'downunder' jokes—implications from Northern nations that the height of a country's prestige is determined by its equivalent spatial location on a conventional map of the world". McArthur's Universal Corrective Map of the World has sold over 350,000 copies to date.
South-up maps are commonly available as novelties or sociopolitical statements in southern hemisphere locales, particularly Australia. A south-up oriented world map appears in episode "Somebody's Going to Emergency, Somebody's Going to Jail" of The West Wing, and issues of cultural bias are discussed in relation to it. Mafalda, by Argentinian cartoonist Quino, is a popular daily cartoon strip in Latin America and Spain. It is about Mafalda, a five year-old girl, yet it is very political. One of the most famous episodes is based on the question: “why are we down?” She finally concludes that the southern hemisphere is so undeveloped because the ideas fall off. Then she puts her globe upside-down and, for a few days, everything is upside-down. American cartoonist Leo Cullum published a cartoon in The New Yorker titled, "Happy penguin looking at upside-down globe; Antarctica is on top".
