A jazzy 1972 history of the computer, from the designers Charles and Ray Eames
Far from being any single inventor’s grand stroke of genius, the modern computer is the result of work by many individuals with disparate motivations over decades. Using as its backdrop an exhibition that ran at the IBM Corporate Exhibit Center between 1971 and 1975, this classic 1972 short documentary by the legendary husband-and-wife design team Charles and Ray Eames explores how shifting economic pressures and small-scale breakthroughs drove the development of modern computing and the information age.
©1972 Eames Office LLC. Used by permission of the Eames Office. All rights reserved.
Directors: Charles Eames, Ray Eames
Narrator: Gregory Peck
Music: Elmer Bernstein, Shelley Manne
videoHistory
The dry-stacked stones of Zimbabwe are a medieval engineering wonder
7 minutes
videoMedicine
Drinking wine from toxic cups was the 17th century’s own dubious ‘detox’ treatment
11 minutes
videoEngineering
How water-based clocks revolutionised the way we measure time
10 minutes
videoEcology and environmental sciences
Join endangered whooping cranes on their perilous migratory path over North America
6 minutes
videoEnvironmental history
In Kazakhstan, ‘atomic lakes’ still scar the landscape decades after Soviet nuclear tests
13 minutes
videoArchitecture
A 3D rendering of the Colosseum captures its architectural genius and symbolic power
17 minutes
videoLanguage and linguistics
Do button-pushing dogs have something new to say about language?
9 minutes
videoMaking
On the Norwegian coast, a tree is transformed into a boat the old-fashioned way
6 minutes
videoComputing and artificial intelligence
A future in which ‘artificial scientists’ make discoveries may not be far away
9 minutes