About the project
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.
Credits
Andrés Jaque / Office for Political Innovation
With the special participation of artists and architects
Paula Currás, Eugenio Fernández, Ana Olmedo, Enrique Ventosa,
Álvaro Carrillo, Rebeca Hourdaki, Víctor Nouman, Adrián Suárez
Research, discussion and production Office for Political Innovation
Paula Currás, Lubo Dragomirov, Roberto González García, Álvaro Guillén, Alberto Heras, Andrés Jaque, Irene Kargiou, William Mondéjar
Sound artists
Jorge López Conde
Set Direction
Roberto González García
Photography
Jorge López Conde, Miguel de Guzmán, Zuloark
Transgender actresses
Belle Dominique (Lisbon); Sherri Payne (Chicago); Roshell Terranova (Ciudad de México); Gloria Diamond (Karlsruhe)
Voice-Over
Susana Correia (Port.), Megan Murphy (Eng.), Paola Jasmer (Esp.), Kerstin Servus Holger (Eng.)
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 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.