TED2007
Eames Demetrios: The design genius of Charles + Ray Eames
Filmed:
Readability: 3.2
774,167 views
The legendary design team Charles and Ray Eames made films, houses and classic midcentury modern furniture. Eames Demetrios, their grandson, shows rarely seen films and archival footage in a lively, loving tribute to their creative process.
Eames Demetrios - Artist
Eames Demetrios is the creator of Kcymaerxthaere, a parallel universe coexisting with our world. He is the grandson of the legendary husband-and-wife design team Charles and Ray Eames. Full bio
Eames Demetrios is the creator of Kcymaerxthaere, a parallel universe coexisting with our world. He is the grandson of the legendary husband-and-wife design team Charles and Ray Eames. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:12
Charles and Ray were a team. They were husband and wife.
0
0
3000
00:15
Despite the New York Times' and Vanity Fair's best efforts recently,
1
3000
3000
00:18
they're not brothers. (Laughter)
2
6000
2000
00:20
And they were a lot of fun.
3
8000
2000
00:22
You know, Ray was the one who wore the ampersands in the family.
4
10000
2000
00:24
(Laughter)
5
12000
3000
00:27
We are going to focus on Charles today, because it is Charles' 100th birthday.
6
15000
3000
00:30
But when I speak of him, I'm really speaking of both of them as a team.
7
18000
3000
00:33
Here's Charles when he was three. So he would be 100 this June.
8
21000
3000
00:36
We have a lot of cool celebrations that we're going to do.
9
24000
2000
00:38
The thing about their work
10
26000
2000
00:40
is that most people come to the door of furniture --
11
28000
2000
00:42
I suspect you probably recognize this chair
12
30000
2000
00:44
and some of the others I'm going to show you.
13
32000
2000
00:46
But we're going to first enter through the door of the Big Top.
14
34000
3000
01:09
The whole thing about this, though, is that, you know, why am I showing it?
15
57000
2000
01:11
Is it because Charles and Ray made this film?
16
59000
2000
01:13
This is actually a training film for a clown college that they had.
17
61000
4000
01:17
They also practiced a clown act when the future of furniture
18
65000
3000
01:20
was not nearly as auspicious as it turned out to be.
19
68000
3000
01:23
There is a picture of Charles. So let's watch the next clip.
20
71000
4000
01:27
The film that we're about to see is a film they made for the Moscow World's Fair.
21
75000
4000
01:31
Video: This is the land.
22
79000
2000
01:33
It has many contrasts.
23
81000
2000
01:35
It is rough and it is flat.
24
83000
4000
01:39
In places it is cold.
25
87000
2000
01:41
In some it is hot.
26
89000
2000
01:58
Too much rain falls on some areas,
27
106000
3000
02:01
and not enough on others.
28
109000
2000
02:05
But people live on this land.
29
113000
3000
02:08
And, as in Russia,
30
116000
2000
02:10
they are drawn together into towns and cities.
31
118000
4000
02:14
Here is something of the way they live.
32
122000
4000
02:18
Eames Demetrios: Now, this is a film that was hardly ever seen in the United States.
33
126000
2000
02:20
It was on seven screens and it was 200 feet across.
34
128000
4000
02:24
And it was at the height of the Cold War.
35
132000
2000
02:26
The Nixon-Khrushchev Kitchen Debate
36
134000
2000
02:28
happened about 50 feet from where this was shown.
37
136000
2000
02:30
And yet, how did it start?
38
138000
2000
02:32
You know, commonality, the first line
39
140000
2000
02:34
in Charles' narration was,
40
142000
2000
02:36
"The same stars that shine down on Russia
41
144000
2000
02:38
shine down on the United States. From the sky,
42
146000
2000
02:40
our cities look much the same."
43
148000
2000
02:42
It was that human connection that Charles and Ray always found in everything.
44
150000
3000
02:45
And you can imagine, and the thing about it is,
45
153000
2000
02:47
that they believed that the human mind could handle this number of images
46
155000
3000
02:50
because the important thing was to get the gestalt
47
158000
2000
02:52
of what the images were about.
48
160000
2000
02:54
So that was just a little snip.
49
162000
2000
02:56
But the thing about Charles and Ray
50
164000
2000
02:58
is that they were always modeling stuff.
51
166000
2000
03:00
They were always trying things out.
52
168000
2000
03:02
I think one of the things I am passionate about, my grandparents work,
53
170000
2000
03:04
I'm passionate about my work,
54
172000
2000
03:06
but on top of all that I'm passionate
55
174000
3000
03:09
about a holistic vision of design,
56
177000
2000
03:11
where design is a life skill, not a professional skill.
57
179000
3000
03:14
And you know, those of us with kids often want our kids to take music.
58
182000
3000
03:17
I'm no exception.
59
185000
2000
03:19
But it's not about them becoming Bono or Tracy Chapman.
60
187000
3000
03:22
It's about getting that music thing going through their heads and their thinking.
61
190000
3000
03:25
Design is the same way. Design has to become that same way.
62
193000
3000
03:28
And this is a model that they did of that seven-screen presentation.
63
196000
2000
03:30
And Charles just checking it out there.
64
198000
3000
03:33
So now we're going to go through that door of furniture.
65
201000
2000
03:35
This is an unusual installation of airport seating.
66
203000
2000
03:37
So what we're going to see is some of the icons of Eames furniture.
67
205000
4000
03:41
And the thing about their furniture is that they said the role of the designer
68
209000
3000
03:44
was essentially that of a good host,
69
212000
2000
03:46
anticipating the needs of the guest.
70
214000
2000
03:48
So those are cool images. But these are ones I think are really cool.
71
216000
2000
03:50
These are all the prototypes. These are the mistakes,
72
218000
3000
03:53
although I don't think mistakes is the right word in design.
73
221000
2000
03:55
It's just the things you try out
74
223000
2000
03:57
to kind of make it work better.
75
225000
2000
03:59
And you know some of them would probably be terrible chairs.
76
227000
3000
04:02
Some of them are kind of cool looking. It's like "Hey, why didn't they try that?"
77
230000
3000
04:05
It was that hands-on iterative process
78
233000
2000
04:07
which is so much like vernacular design
79
235000
3000
04:10
and folk design in traditional cultures.
80
238000
3000
04:13
And I think that's one of the commonalities between modernism
81
241000
2000
04:15
and traditional design. I think it may be a real common ground
82
243000
3000
04:18
as we kind of figure out what on earth to do in the next 20 or 30 years.
83
246000
3000
04:21
The other thing that's kind of cool is that
84
249000
2000
04:23
you look at this and in the media when people say design,
85
251000
3000
04:26
they actually mean style.
86
254000
2000
04:28
And I'm really here to talk about design.
87
256000
2000
04:30
But you know the object is just a pivot.
88
258000
2000
04:32
It's a pivot between a process and a system.
89
260000
3000
04:35
And this is a little film I made
90
263000
4000
04:39
about the making of the Eames lounge chair.
91
267000
2000
04:41
The design process for Charles and Ray
92
269000
4000
04:45
never ended in manufacturing.
93
273000
5000
04:50
It continued. They were always trying to make thing better and better.
94
278000
2000
04:52
Because it's like as Bill Clinton was saying about Rwandan health clinics.
95
280000
5000
04:57
It's not enough to create one.
96
285000
2000
04:59
You've got to create a system that will work better and better.
97
287000
2000
05:01
So I've always liked this prototype picture.
98
289000
2000
05:03
Because it just kind of, you know, doesn't get any more basic than that.
99
291000
2000
05:05
You try things out.
100
293000
2000
05:07
This is a relatively famous chair.
101
295000
2000
05:09
Its early version had an "X" base. That's what the collectors like.
102
297000
3000
05:12
Charles and Ray liked this one because it was better.
103
300000
2000
05:14
It worked better: "H" base, much more practical.
104
302000
3000
05:17
This is something called a splint.
105
305000
2000
05:19
And I was very touched by Dean Kamen's
106
307000
2000
05:21
work for the military, or for the soldiers,
107
309000
4000
05:25
because Charles and Ray designed a molded plywood splint. This is it.
108
313000
4000
05:29
And they'd been working on furniture before.
109
317000
2000
05:31
But doing these splints they learned a lot about the manufacturing process,
110
319000
3000
05:34
which was incredibly important to them.
111
322000
3000
05:47
I'm trying to show you too much,
112
335000
2000
05:49
because I want you to really get a broth of ideas and images.
113
337000
2000
05:51
This is a house that Charles and Ray designed.
114
339000
2000
05:53
My sister is chasing someone else. It's not me.
115
341000
3000
05:56
Although I endorse heartily the fact that he stole her diary, it's not me.
116
344000
4000
06:00
And then this is a film, on the lower left, that Charles and Ray made.
117
348000
4000
06:04
Now look at that plastic chair.
118
352000
3000
06:07
The house is 1949.
119
355000
2000
06:09
The chair is done in 1949.
120
357000
3000
06:12
Charles and Ray,
121
360000
4000
06:16
they didn't obsess about style for it's own sake.
122
364000
2000
06:18
They didn't say, "Our style is curves. Let's make the house curvy."
123
366000
3000
06:21
They didn't say, "Our style is grids. Let's make the chair griddy."
124
369000
3000
06:24
They focused on the need.
125
372000
2000
06:26
They tried to solve the design problem.
126
374000
2000
06:28
Charles used to say, "The extent to which you have a design style
127
376000
3000
06:31
is the extent to which you have not solved the design problem."
128
379000
2000
06:33
It's kind of a brutal quote.
129
381000
2000
06:35
This is the earlier design of that house.
130
383000
2000
06:37
And again, they managed to figure out a way to make a prototype
131
385000
2000
06:39
of a house -- architecture, very expensive medium.
132
387000
3000
06:42
Here's a film we've been hearing things about.
133
390000
3000
06:45
The "Powers of Ten" is a film they made.
134
393000
3000
06:48
If we watch the next clip,
135
396000
2000
06:50
you're going to see the first version of "Powers of Ten," upper left.
136
398000
4000
06:54
The familiar one on the lower right.
137
402000
4000
06:58
The Eames' film Tops, lower left.
138
406000
3000
07:01
And a lamp that Charles designed for a church.
139
409000
3000
07:04
Video: Which in turn belongs to a local group of galaxies.
140
412000
3000
07:07
These form part of a grouping system
141
415000
2000
07:09
much as the stars do.
142
417000
3000
07:12
They are so many and so varied that from this distance
143
420000
2000
07:14
they appear like the stars from Earth.
144
422000
4000
07:18
ED: You've seen that film, and what's so great about this
145
426000
3000
07:21
whole conference is that everybody has been talking about scale.
146
429000
2000
07:23
Everybody here is coming at it from a different way.
147
431000
2000
07:25
I want to give you one example.
148
433000
2000
07:27
E.O. Wilson once told me that when he looked at ants --
149
435000
2000
07:29
he loved them, of course, and he wanted to learn more about them --
150
437000
3000
07:32
he consciously looked at them from the standpoint of scale.
151
440000
2000
07:34
So here is the tiny creature.
152
442000
2000
07:36
And yet simply by changing the frame of reference
153
444000
2000
07:38
it reveals so much, including what ended up being the TED Prize.
154
446000
3000
07:41
Modeling, they tried modeling all the time. They were always modeling things.
155
449000
4000
07:45
And I think part of that is that they never delegated understanding.
156
453000
3000
07:48
And I think in our family we were very lucky,
157
456000
3000
07:51
because we learned about design backwards.
158
459000
2000
07:53
Design was not something other.
159
461000
2000
07:55
It was part of the business of life in general.
160
463000
2000
07:57
It was part of the quality of life.
161
465000
2000
07:59
And here is some family pictures.
162
467000
3000
08:02
And you can see why I'm down on style, with a haircut like that.
163
470000
2000
08:04
But anyway, (Laughter)
164
472000
2000
08:06
I remember the cut grapefruit that we would have at the Eames house when I was a kid.
165
474000
3000
08:09
So we're going to watch another film.
166
477000
2000
08:11
This is a film, the one called Toys.
167
479000
3000
08:14
You can see me, I have the same haircut, in the upper right corner.
168
482000
4000
08:18
Upper left is a film they did on toy trains.
169
486000
4000
08:22
Lower right is a solar do-nothing toy.
170
490000
3000
08:25
Lower left is Day-of-the-Dead toys.
171
493000
3000
08:37
Charles used to say that toys are not as innocent as they appear.
172
505000
3000
08:40
They are often the precursor to bigger things.
173
508000
4000
08:44
And these ideas -- that train up there, being about the honest use of materials,
174
512000
3000
08:47
is totally the same
175
515000
2000
08:49
as the honest use of materials in the plywood.
176
517000
3000
08:56
And now I'm going to test you.
177
524000
1000
08:57
This is a letter that my grandfather sent to my mom when she was five years old.
178
525000
4000
09:01
So can you read it?
179
529000
2000
09:03
Lucia angel,
180
531000
2000
09:05
okay, eye.
181
533000
3000
09:08
Audience: Saw many trains.
182
536000
4000
09:12
ED: Awl, also, good that the leather crafter's guild is here.
183
540000
5000
09:17
Also, what is he doing? Row, rowed.
184
545000
5000
09:22
Sun? No. Well is there another name for a sunrise?
185
550000
2000
09:24
Dawn, very good.
186
552000
3000
09:27
Also rode on one. I ...
187
555000
2000
09:29
Audience: You had, I hope you had --
188
557000
2000
09:31
ED: Now you've been to the website Dogs of Saint Louis
189
559000
2000
09:33
in the late, in the mid-1930's,
190
561000
2000
09:35
then you'd know that was a Great Dane.
191
563000
2000
09:37
So, I hope you had a
192
565000
2000
09:39
Audience: Nice time, time --
193
567000
4000
09:43
ED: Time at.
194
571000
2000
09:45
Citizen Kane, rose --
195
573000
2000
09:47
Audience: Rosebud.
196
575000
2000
09:49
ED: No, bud. "D"'s right. At Buddy's --
197
577000
3000
09:52
Audience: Party. Love.
198
580000
2000
09:54
ED: Okay, good.
199
582000
2000
09:56
So, "I saw many trains and also rode on one.
200
584000
2000
09:58
I hope you had a nice time at Buddy's party."
201
586000
2000
10:00
So you guys did pretty good, cool.
202
588000
3000
10:03
So my mom and Charles had this great relationship
203
591000
2000
10:05
where they'd send those sorts of things back and forth to one another.
204
593000
3000
10:08
And it's all part of the, you know,
205
596000
2000
10:10
they used to say, "Take your pleasure seriously."
206
598000
2000
10:12
These are some images from a project of mine
207
600000
3000
10:15
that's called Kymaerica.
208
603000
2000
10:17
It's sort of an alternative universe.
209
605000
2000
10:19
It's kind of a reinterpretation of the landscape.
210
607000
3000
10:22
Those plaques are plaques we've been installing around North America.
211
610000
2000
10:24
We're about to do six in the U.K. next week.
212
612000
3000
10:27
And they honor events in the linear world from the fictional world.
213
615000
3000
10:30
So, of course, since it's bronze it has to be true.
214
618000
2000
10:32
Video: Kymaerica with waterfalls,
215
620000
5000
10:37
tumbling through our --
216
625000
2000
10:39
ED: This is one of the traditional Kymaerican songs.
217
627000
2000
10:41
And so we had spelling bees in Paris, Illinois.
218
629000
5000
10:46
Video: Your word is N. Carolina.
219
634000
2000
10:48
Girl: Y-I-N-D-I-A-N-A.
220
636000
3000
10:51
ED: And then Embassy Row is actually a historical site,
221
639000
4000
10:55
because in the Kymaerican story
222
643000
2000
10:57
this is where the Parisian Diaspora started, where there embassy was.
223
645000
3000
11:00
So you can actually visit and have this three-dimensional
224
648000
2000
11:02
fictional experience there.
225
650000
2000
11:04
And the town has really embraced it.
226
652000
2000
11:06
We had the spelling bee in conjunction with the Gwomeus Club.
227
654000
2000
11:08
But what is really cool is that we take our visual environment
228
656000
3000
11:11
as inevitable. And it's not.
229
659000
3000
11:14
Other things could have happened. The Japanese could have discovered Monterey.
230
662000
3000
11:17
And we could have been born 100,000 years ago.
231
665000
2000
11:19
And there are a lot of fun things. This is the Museum of the Bench.
232
667000
2000
11:21
They have trading cards
233
669000
2000
11:23
and all sorts of cool things.
234
671000
2000
11:25
And you're kind of trapped in the texture of Kymaerica.
235
673000
4000
11:29
The Tahatchabe, the great road building culture.
236
677000
2000
11:31
A guy named Nobu Naga,
237
679000
2000
11:33
the so-called Japanese Columbus.
238
681000
2000
11:35
But now I'm going to return you to the real world.
239
683000
2000
11:37
And this is Cranbrook. I've got a real treat for you,
240
685000
3000
11:40
which is the first film that Charles ever made.
241
688000
2000
11:42
So let's watch that. Nobody's ever seen it.
242
690000
3000
11:45
Cranbrook is very generous to let us show it for the first time here.
243
693000
4000
11:49
It's a film about Maya Gretel, a famous ceramicist, and a teacher at Cranbrook.
244
697000
4000
11:53
And he made it for the 1939 faculty exhibition.
245
701000
4000
11:57
Silent. We don't have a track for it yet.
246
705000
6000
12:03
Very simple. It's just a start. But it's that learn-by-doing thing.
247
711000
3000
12:06
You want to learn how to make films? Go make a movie.
248
714000
2000
12:08
And you try something out.
249
716000
2000
12:10
But here is what's really great.
250
718000
2000
12:12
See that chair there? The orange one? That's the organic chair. 1940.
251
720000
4000
12:16
At the same time that Charles was doing that chair,
252
724000
2000
12:18
he was doing this film.
253
726000
2000
12:20
So my point is that this scope of vision, this holistic vision
254
728000
2000
12:22
of design, was with them from the beginning.
255
730000
2000
12:24
It wasn't like "Oh, we made some chairs and got successful.
256
732000
2000
12:26
Now we're going to do some movies."
257
734000
2000
12:28
It was always part of how they looked at the world. And that's what's really powerful.
258
736000
3000
12:31
And I think that all of us in this room, as you move design forward,
259
739000
3000
12:34
it's not about just doing one thing.
260
742000
4000
12:38
It's about how you approach problems. And there is this huge, beautiful commonality
261
746000
3000
12:41
between design, business and the world.
262
749000
3000
12:44
So we're going to do the last clip.
263
752000
2000
12:46
And I've shown you some of the images. I just want to focus on sound now.
264
754000
2000
12:48
So this is Charles' voice.
265
756000
2000
12:50
Charles Eames: In India, those without, and the lowest in caste,
266
758000
5000
12:55
eat very often, particularly in southern India,
267
763000
2000
12:57
they eat off of a banana leaf.
268
765000
3000
13:00
And those a little bit up the scale
269
768000
4000
13:04
eat off of a sort of a low-fired ceramic dish.
270
772000
4000
13:08
And a little bit higher, why they have a glaze
271
776000
3000
13:11
on a thing they call a thali.
272
779000
3000
13:14
If you're up the scale a little bit more,
273
782000
2000
13:16
why, a brass thali.
274
784000
2000
13:18
And then things get to be a little questionable.
275
786000
4000
13:22
There are things like silver-plated thalis.
276
790000
3000
13:25
And there is solid silver thalis.
277
793000
2000
13:27
And I suppose some nut has had a
278
795000
3000
13:30
gold thali that he's eaten off of.
279
798000
2000
13:32
But you can go beyond that.
280
800000
2000
13:34
And the guys that have not only means,
281
802000
5000
13:39
but a certain amount of knowledge and understanding,
282
807000
5000
13:44
go to the next step, and they eat off a banana leaf.
283
812000
5000
13:49
And I think that in these times
284
817000
4000
13:53
when we fall back and regroup,
285
821000
2000
13:55
that somehow or other,
286
823000
4000
13:59
the banana leaf parable
287
827000
2000
14:01
sort of got to get working there,
288
829000
2000
14:03
because I'm not prepared to say
289
831000
3000
14:06
that the banana leaf that one eats off of
290
834000
3000
14:09
is the same as the other eats off of.
291
837000
5000
14:14
But it is that process that has happened within the man
292
842000
4000
14:18
that changes the banana leaf.
293
846000
3000
14:21
ED: I've been looking forward to sharing that quote with you.
294
849000
2000
14:23
Because that's part of where we've got to get to.
295
851000
2000
14:25
And I also want to share this one.
296
853000
2000
14:27
"Beyond the age of information is the age of choices."
297
855000
3000
14:30
And I really think that's where we are.
298
858000
2000
14:32
And it's kind of cool for me to be part of a family
299
860000
3000
14:35
and a tradition where he was talking about that in 1978.
300
863000
3000
14:38
And part of why this stuff is important
301
866000
3000
14:41
and all the things that we do are important,
302
869000
2000
14:43
is that these are the ideas we need.
303
871000
2000
14:45
And I think that this is all part of surrendering to the design journey.
304
873000
3000
14:48
That's what we all need to do.
305
876000
2000
14:50
Design is not just for designers anymore. It's a process. It's not style.
306
878000
3000
14:53
All that great thinking needs to really get about solving
307
881000
3000
14:56
pretty key problems.
308
884000
2000
14:58
I really thank you for your time.
309
886000
2000
15:00
(Applause)
310
888000
3000
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Eames Demetrios - ArtistEames Demetrios is the creator of Kcymaerxthaere, a parallel universe coexisting with our world. He is the grandson of the legendary husband-and-wife design team Charles and Ray Eames.
Why you should listen
The Kcymaerxthaere is "a global work of three-dimensional fiction" that overlays alternative stories onto the physical world. Eames Demetrios, the project's Geographer-at-Large, travels the world exploring stories of imaginary peoples, movements, even physical laws -- and then memorializing these stories on bronze plaques. Kymaerica, which Demetrios references in the talk, is one area within Kcymaerxthaere.
Demetrios is the grandson of Charles and Ray Eames, the design team whose classic chairs, photographs and films epitomize the boundless creativity of the midcentury modern period. Demetrios is active in preserving the Eames legacy, as principal of the Eames Office, a clearinghouse of resources for researching, shopping and exploring the work of these legendary creative people. Demetrios was instrumental in creating the interactive version of the Eames' groundbreaking film Powers of Ten and making the film A Gathering of Elephants.
Eames Demetrios | Speaker | TED.com