Being Eames

While the greatest legacy of Ray and Charles Eames may be their part in the design of the world's most ubiquitous and uncomfortable school chairs, I would say that their true gift to humanity is not something they designed or filmed. Their greatest asset was their unrelenting curiosity that drove the pair to capture the world for what they saw it: as a collection of accidental artworks. From leaves to their own children, their catalogue of films and the infinite compilation of original and incomparable design were nothing in comparison to the pairing of minds (in a marriage no less) that lived to see and improve.

I am in awe of their ability to reconcile such a staunchly commercial business with their altruistic pursuit of filmmaking. Their appearance in early television suggested a celebrity-esque stature, yet their body of work alluded more to two carefree kindred spirits who would be just as satisfied to film nothing in particular as they are to film everything but.

While cinema may be a technically accurate term to use to describe the filmic work of Charles and Ray Eames, I’d argue that it is the opposite. Their embrace of home recording; to not pursue grandiose mega-plex replicas and instead explore the spaces they inhabited everyday was a movement towards the domestic and participatory status quo for modern content development. The sheer possession of the insight to extract such beauty from the everyday is made even more enviable by the fact that this was a couple who created the domestic space for others every other minute of the day.

Perhaps they possessed a greater natural artistic pedigree than the average artist. Their involvement in early television commercial development reflects a sophisticated ability to promote but simultaneously push the envelope of art. The kaleidoscopic advertisement shown in class was a single example of a tireless work that was just effective as it was affective.

I am unable to draw a parallel with a modern figure. The closer I think would be Spike Jonze.

Spike Jonze has a respected cinematic portfolio as director of Being John Malkovich ,Adaptation, and the upcoming Where the Wild Things Are. But before that, he developed a reputation as a music video director where he leveraged the necessity for commercial appeal with suitable doses of quirk in order to break the conventional mold and almost singlehandedly revitalize the music video medium as an art form in its own right. Music videos were not the only commercial media that Jonze used as a vessel for artistic expression, his experience in promotional skateboard videos had the same composition of avant garde expression as the celebrated Adaptation.

Even so, the Eames achieved the same while promoting their own products, which either took saintly self control or a genuine love for art for art’s sake.