Lifetime-design inspired by IBM and Ray and Charles Eames
A re-interpretation of »Powers of Tens« to make most of your seconds on this planet
Powers of Ten, 1977, Ray and Charles Eames with IBM
The 1977 short film »Powers of Tens«, a collaboration by Ray and Charles Eames and IBM, marks a milestone.
Powers of Ten™ (1977)
First of all, it examples an exciting partnership between the biggest Western computer company at the time with the most progressive US-based designers. The realization and promotion of the film was a huge investment into arts and exploration, in the midst of the cold war.
Imagine Apple or Tesla asking one of the most famous designers or artists of our times, like Patricia Urquiola or Olafur Eliasson, to re-think the world together. Just for a poetic gesture.
Secondly, »Powers of Tens«, influenced thousands of kids who watched this movie at school. They were invited to realize the world as scalable. They recognized their own being in this world as infinite. Maybe those kids were even invigorated to understand that satellite cameras or other fancy technology could be used for fun projects.
Thirdly, Ray and Charles Eames encouraged the viewers of the film — back then and still today, just scroll through the youtube comments to get an idea — to rethink numbers, time, distance, and their own role in a complex universe.
Recently I re-watched »The Power of Tens« with my students.
Their first reaction was, to think about their own being in this world. The video invited them to distance themselves from their current drama in life. They rather started to explore themselves from the viewpoint of a distant observer. That is a technique common in meditation. To observe your own thinking makes you less attached to your thoughts. To observe yourself as a part of something bigger relativizes your own position in a healthy way.
The students’ second reaction was to come to an understanding of the power of the number 10.
We experimented with the time-dimension of 10. I asked them: “What do you want to realize in this world? Choose one matter that is most important to you right now.”
I looked at my stop watch and said: “Okay, now you have one second to realize it.”
A 1-second-deep breath, smile, gaze out of the window, sip of coffee, kiss, friendly gesture, written word, can already make such a big difference in our lives.
We went on with 10 seconds, 1 minute, 10 minutes. Everybody in the seminar realized that the good old excuse of running out of time, is just not true. You can read a bit of an inspiring book, run a short distance, call a friend, donate money, eat an apple. In 10 minutes, you can do a lot of uplifting activities in a very short amount of time.
We continued the experiment with life planning questions “What could I do with the next 10 hours of this day?”, …the next 10 days, …10 weeks, …10 months, …10 years, or …100 years?
The chosen activities for the short time span up to 10 minutes focused on being present in the moment. Experimenting with 10 hours and 10 daysmade the students re-think their daily planning. They shifted their focus from the necessary tasks on their to-do-lists to joyful activities and meaningful relations.
When we went on to think about how to spend the next 10 years or 100 years in meaningful ways something interesting happened. We all come back to the present moment, to the 10 seconds, 1 minute, 10 minutes. We realized how absurd it is to plan everything in all details, or to postpone your actions into the future.
We realized. In case we will still be here in 100 + years. What would still matter most would be that 1-second-deep breath, smile, gaze out of the window, sip of coffee, kiss, friendly gesture, written word, can already make such a big difference in our lives.
Enjoy life. Thank you for reading.