In the short film “Powers of Ten” created by the world-famous architect couple Charles and Ray Eames in 1977 the viewer follows the effects of adding another zero to the perspective of scale. In a ten second motion, the perspective changes and leaves us in an endless calculation of the universe. From a picnic- blanket in Chicago to the dark and empty nothingness, beyond our human perception. Out here we are left alone for a second. The scientific rationality of mathematics, physics and chemistry slowly ends up being an existential confusion. Suddenly the perspective changes and takes us back to Chicago where we are downsized, and dive straight into the human body. Through skin, flesh, cells, and DNA we decompose into particles. We are left feeling exposed to the realisation that we are made of the same complex nothingness from which the universe was constructed.

Photo: Nitty Gritty