#about perspective

[chaoticgoosely]

There was another part, but I cropped it out because it looked off.

[lussilogix]

The Power of Ten

Taking me back to my first semester at Design School (Zurich University of the Arts), the Charles and Ray’s documentary, Powers of Ten — one of most impactful short films ever made.

The film begins with a scene of a lakeside picnic in Chicago then proceeds to transport us to the outer edges of the universe. Every ten seconds we view the starting point from ten times farther out until our own galaxy is visible as nothing more than a speck of light among many others. Returning to Earth with breathtaking speed, we move inward—into the hand of the sleeping picnicker—with ten times more magnification every ten seconds. The journey ends inside a proton of a carbon atom, which is within a DNA molecule inside of a white blood cell.

Charles and Ray first created this documentary short in 1968. The film was called A Rough Sketch for a Proposed Film Dealing with the Powers of Ten and the Relative Size of things in the Universe. In the spirit of iteration for which they are known, they rereleased it in 1977 under the name Powers of Ten. The film is an adaptation of the 1957 book, Cosmic View, by Kees Boeke, and more recently is the basis of a new book version. Both the film and book adaptations follow the form of Boeke’s seminal work; however, they feature color and photo. We hear about scale every day, whether it be supertankers, stars burning thousands of lightyears away, the study of microscopic viruses, or global warming. Understanding scale, or as the Eameses said, “the effect of adding another zero,”  has the power to change our perspective of our worlds and keep our sharpness our surroudings.

For me there are two powerful messages in this short film: First, perspectives provide different lenses through which to view the world,  changing your perspective can change your world, quite literally. Second,  as individuals we are mere specs of dust in an infinite universe of galaxies; yet we carry the entire universe within us - we are one.

So if life throws you a curveball, shout out loud ‘plot twist’, and simply change your perspective.

[baebeesensitive]

Life changing thoughts #1

We are all just cells trying to avoid extinction. Mind blown

[bjgaulton]

About Perspective by Blair Gaulton

About Perspective Our perspective from another viewpoint can be inventive, weird or downright strange. That is okay. Varierty is good. Other people will not see it the same way. It makes life intriquing. (C)BJG(Blair Gaulton)Mar 2015

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