Watch Charles & Ray Eames’ Powers of Ten, the 1977 Film That Put the Scale of the Universe into Brilliant Perspective. The 1977 short film Powers of Ten takes cosmic view as a starting point, Charles and Ray Eames’ iconic little film (first above) starts with a fixed point in Chicago, then moves out into the universe by factors of ten. And, before too long, you find yourself 100 million light years away. It’s eight minutes of brilliant work. But they didn’t come easily. Almost a decade before releasing Powers of Ten, the Eames produced a less widely seen prototype. 1968’s A Rough Sketch for a Proposed Film Dealing with the Powers of Ten and the Relative Size of Things in the Universe (second above) reveals some of the thinking and process the American designers undertook to envision a cinematic Cosmic View. They ultimately succeeded, having fleshed out this basic but still impressive concept over the following decade. In 1982, the project would come full circle by returning to print with Powers of Ten: A Book About the Relative Size of Things in the Universe and the Effect of Adding Another Zero.

Expo: Charles and Ray Eames

Expo in Hasselt until may 28th 2017: The World of Charles and Ray Eames in C-mine.


Website: C-mine cultuurcentrum