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The Pacific Palisades fire on January 25 destroyed much of the Los Angeles coastal area, but the home of Charles and Ray Eames was somehow spared. Anyone who has ever been here, or at least pored over the many surviving photographs, knows that this building is much more than a preserved piece of California modernism that once housed a famous designer couple. In fact, it is more like a domestically created world, or at least a worldview. Viewed from the outside, the first thing you notice is the clean, vaguely Japanese lines, sharp angles, and flat Mondrian colors. When you walk in, you don’t know what to look at first. Is that Isamu Noguchi’s lamp? Native American basket? Kokeshi? Eames lounge chair?
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The Eames House reopened to visitors last summer after being closed for several months to repair smoke damage. But no matter where you are in the world, you can tour the place in its prime. 1955 short film at the top of the post.
Simply titled “House: After Five Years of Living,” the piece briefly animates the construction process of the titular building, showing its natural background and some of the textures found on its exterior walls and surroundings, before quickly adding a tentative (albeit almost entirely static) movement toward the interior. Shot and edited by the Eameses themselves, the film represents the Eameses’ aesthetic and communication sensibilities as much as the house itself or the interior furnishings they designed themselves.
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Now, let’s try 35 Eames short stories, each in a different way. Collected in this Youtube playlist. Of course, this also includes “Power of Ten” The eight-minute film zooms out from a picnic on Lake Michigan, 100 light years away into space, and back again to the microscopic scale of “protons in the nucleus of a carbon atom under the skin of a man’s hand as he sleeps at the picnic.” In addition to managing the museum, the Charles and Ray Eames Foundation plans to re-screen the acclaimed film for its 50th anniversary next year. Until then, this playlist Reflecting not only the Eameses’ characteristic instincts for modernist creativity and easy-going pedagogy, but also their closeness to the world that was rapidly becoming a reality in the mid-20th century, it provides an opportunity to explore their extensive film oeuvre in a little more detail.
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Consider the body of work they did for IBM. “Computer Perspective: Background of the Computer Age” The one directly above was commissioned for the exhibition of the same name. Starting with the story of humanity’s oldest computing machine, the story progresses in a jazzy visual history into the post-war decades. During that time, as the narrator says, “the demands on computers began to diversify; they needed to be not only computing and analytical devices, but also information storage and retrieval devices, communication tools, and interlocutors.” If the Eameses had lived, we might wonder how fully computers would be able to fulfill that last role. And upon revisiting “Powers of Ten,” it’s hard to ignore how much the viewing experience reminds me of idle exploration in Google Earth. This technological development would have never seemed impossible to them and would definitely have seemed appealing.
Related content:
Charles and Ray Eames’ ‘Powers of Ten’ updated to reflect modern understanding of the universe
Charles and Ray Eames’ iconic lounge chair appears on American television (1956)
Charles and Ray Eames’ Introduction to Communication Explains the Keys to Clear Communication in Modern Times (1953)
Charles and Ray Eames’ Mexican Day of the Dead short film (1957)
“They Were There” – Errol Morris finally directs movie for IBM
Watch the 1962 film “Design for Disaster” that shows why Los Angeles is always at risk of catastrophic fires
Based in Seoul, Colin Mbemust write and broadcastIt’s about cities, languages and cultures. he is the author of the newsletter books about cities books as well Home page (I won’t summarize Korea) and korean newtro. Follow him on the social network formerly known as Twitter. @Colinbemust.
Source: Open Culture – www.openculture.com
