In 1977, Ray and Charles Eames produced Powers of Ten: A Film Dealing with the Relative Size of Things in the Universe and the Effects of Adding Another Zero; an exploration of the way daily life is produced in the collaboration of different scales—from the subatomic level or a human cell to the outer edges of the Milky Way. The selective framing and narrative of Powers of Ten, which centers on a heterosexual couple having a picnic on Chicago’s lakefront, presents a progression that zooms between framed scenes in which abrupt jumps in scale and the conflicted interaction between genes, bodies, societies, and technologies appear smooth, frictionless, and apolitical.

As a nomadic temporary architecture, SUPERPOWERS OF TEN is an operatic large-scale performance that offers a reinterpretation of the Eameses’ Powers of Ten. The performance re-enacts the film, revealing alternative narratives, political conflicts, and forgotten historical events. New characters such as Kodak’s “Shirley Card,” polio, and the transgender pioneer Flawless Sabrina are invited to star together with the picnickers, clusters of galaxies, and human DNA that are featured in the Eameses’ original film. SUPERPOWERS OF TEN critically denies the possibility of framing daily life as contained by a universe automatically accountable, and proclaims the potential for contemporary architectural practices to operate in those fields the movie left out of the frame.

Superpowers of Ten was developed and presented for the first time as part of New Publics, curated by José Esparza Chong Cuy for the Lisbon Architecture Triennal Close Closer, directed by Beatrice Galilee in 2013.

In 2015 it was presented in the Chicago Architecture Biennial, The State of the Art of Architecture, curated by Joseph Grima and Sarah Herda.

In 2016 it was presented in the Jumex Museum, as part of the exhibition curated by Jose Esparza Chong Cuy with he curatorial assistance of Viridiana Zavala (Jumex Museum) and Alberto Heras Hernández (Office for Political Innovation)

In 2016 it was presented in the ZKM Karlsruhe, as part of the exhibition Reset Modernity, curated by Bruno Latour, Martin Guinard-Terrin, Donato Ricci and Christian Leclerq.

Superpowers of Ten has been presented as exhibition in the following venues:

• Chicago Architecture Biennial, The State of the Art of Architecture (2015), curated by Joseph Grima and Sarah Herda.
• Andrés Jaque / Office for Political Innovation: Superpowers of Ten. Museo Jumex, Ciudad de México (11 Feb.-10 Mar. 2016), curated by José Esparza Chong-Cuy
• Reset Modernity. ZKM, Karlsruhe (16 Apr. – 21 Aug. 2016), curated by Bruno Latour, Martin Guinard-Terrin, Donato Ricci and Christian Leclerq.