Cambridge Talks: Acts of Scaling

In 1977, nine years after its initial release, Ray and Charles Eames issued an amended version of their experimental film Powers of Ten, incorporating two additional scales, and thereby effecting “a hundredfold increase—to each end of the journey into the universe, and to the return trip to the microstructure of the carbon atom in the human body.” Drawing on up-to-the-moment scientific developments at scales both extra-large and extra-small, seizing upon the power of then-novel media and representational techniques to appeal to very different audiences, and venturing well beyond the ostensible borders of the design disciplines, the Eames’ visual and narrative encapsulation of a complex and interconnected universe displays precisely how scale, or more precisely how scaling, can shape imaginaries and practices across the arts, humanities, and sciences, as well as in popular culture. As technical innovations augment the scope of our powers both to perceive and to intervene, we are confronted with a relentless ordering and reordering of knowledge. This epistemological dilemma compels us to articulate new theoretical frameworks, to relentlessly renegotiate disciplinary boundaries, and to analyze, address, and problem-solve between—and often simultaneously at—an ever-proliferating range of scales.

Host or Publisher Harvard University Graduate School of Design