Doing some research on 20th century art and artists this weekend, I came across some cool photos of Ray and Charles Eames, the great 20th century designers. The couple did some pretty extraordinary work together, even beyond architecture and design, and I was delighted to find their short documentary Powers of Ten (1968) available online.
Narrated by Philip Morrison, the film is a neat examination of perspective, showing the relative scale of the cosmos by factors of ten, from the view of our human world, to the expanse of the observable universe, to up close and personal with a proton.
And for those of you who prefer a more tactile approach to scaling the universe, there's also the Powers of Ten flipbook, which has the special advantage of allowing you to set your own transition pace. Of course it's very easy nowadays to access cool NASA videos of outer space phenomena, but in 1968, when the Eames' film was released, depictions of the universe weren't so prevalent. Nor were extraordinary designing couples like Ray and Charles. So -- today -- as I was reading about this most innovative couple, I was surprised to discover this in their biographical info: They died ten years apart to the day. That day was today, August 21.
Narrated by Philip Morrison, the film is a neat examination of perspective, showing the relative scale of the cosmos by factors of ten, from the view of our human world, to the expanse of the observable universe, to up close and personal with a proton.
And for those of you who prefer a more tactile approach to scaling the universe, there's also the Powers of Ten flipbook, which has the special advantage of allowing you to set your own transition pace. Of course it's very easy nowadays to access cool NASA videos of outer space phenomena, but in 1968, when the Eames' film was released, depictions of the universe weren't so prevalent. Nor were extraordinary designing couples like Ray and Charles. So -- today -- as I was reading about this most innovative couple, I was surprised to discover this in their biographical info: They died ten years apart to the day. That day was today, August 21.
