Connecting The Powers of Ten

The Powers of Ten is most significant within the context of the Eames’ quote: “Eventually everything connects.” It is evident that design for the Eames was not a job or purpose, but a necessary part of life. The connection of life experiences made its way into all of the Eames’ designs. While filming a documentary on pottery making, the Eames found incentive to their “organic chair.”

The connection between the audience and the subject of the film is made instantly as with no prior explanation the narrator sets off with a patterned set of steps based on a number all humans can relate to. The connection to humans; human relation in scale is the subject of the film just as human relation to designed objects is the designer’s primary concern. Although we are dragged out into the deepest known reaches of the universe we are not without a sense of place, as the zoomed out pan of the camera is based on the introductory metric square one man may fit within. Just as atoms form molecules; molecules to cells and cells to organs, we are but a unit to the earth, which is a unit of the galaxy. The units we design must always make conscious connections to the governing system we manufacture.

The film presents us with perspectives we have never experienced before and the significance of humanity, the earth and the sun is brought to the size of a pea. The film dictates that the impulses of design can be found deep within the cells of our bodies or on the contours of the skeletal membrane of an ant. If we look close enough; imagine far enough design’s connection to life will become self evident.