Eames and IBM at the World’s Fair: An Era of Partnership 


 The Eames Office along with the IBM Corporation collaborated on multiple multi-media  experiences to promote the sciences, particularly the new at the time world of computing, to audiences across The United States. Through films, pavilions and exhibitions, the Eames Office aimed to translate the tough and technical world of computers that promoted the idea of man and  machine together as something to look forward to. Many of these projects were created for  IBM’s various pavilions and World’s Fairs over a period between 1958 through 1970,  specifically The Brussels World Fair of 1958, The New York World’s Fair of 1964-65, the 1968  Hemisfair in San Antonio, Texas and finally the Osaka Expo in 1970. The work created by the  Eames Office for these pavilions, ranging from films, to entire pavilions, to simple souvenirs,  showcased what values the Eames Office deemed important. These projects were reflections of  the Eames belief in the power of education, collaboration with experts, and finally, the idea of  being a great host, an idea particularly important for Ray Eames. 

In looking at all four World Fair pavilions, the combination of the ideals of the Eames Office, as well as the financial and creative support given by IBM, helped create a series of  works which altogether helped humanize the world of computing and artificial intelligence for  audiences, who were just at the forefront of having these giant machines be a common and  significant part of their lives. A productive era of projects for World’s Fairs, The Eames Office  and IBM collaborations for World’s Fairs helped contribute to a lasting legacy of the early image  and optimism of the computer age, which was just yet to come at the time of their producing  these works. These projects ultimately cement two goals: asserting the analogy of the various complications and tribulations a computer can come across to those experienced by humans, and  the idea that their is always man behind the machine1

The Eames Office came to be known to IBM through architect and designer Eliot Noyes.  Charles Eames, along with Cranbrook classmate and fellow designer Eero Saarinen, had been  known by Eliot Noyes since his days as the first curator of industrial design at MoMA, where he  helped established the Organic Design in Home Furnishings Show. Noyes was particularly  attracted to certain elements in design, as reflected in the people he chose to win MoMA’S  design shows. The first would be design as teamwork and design as a collaborative process, and  also promoted the impact of the machine in design as deeply impacting society. Leaving MoMA2 briefly as the United States took on aircraft warfare in WWII to act as a test pilot for the army airforce glide research initiative, he met Thomas Watson Jr,. who would soon become the future  heir to IBM Corporation. Noyes returned to New York to work under Norman Bel Geddes,  helping the Bel Geddes office to score commissions from IBM as a result of Noyes and Watson’s  friendship. Once Watson Jr. took the reigns as president of IBM from his father in 1952, Noyes helped Watson in a number of projects for IBM, such as redesigning offices and showrooms, and  the lobby of their headquarters in Manhattan. Noyes was never a full time employee however,  opting to be a “Consultant Director of Design,” as opposed to a full time position offered by Watson as the director of design. Noyes wanted total freedom, telling Watson “I’ll work with you, not for you. The only way I can do this job right is to have full access to top management.”3 Thus, this consultant role allowed him the freedom to work his own architectural practice on the  side, as well as have more creative freedom with IBM. Noyes curated a team of experts that  included not only the Eames, but Paul Rand, George nelson and Edgar Kaufmann, as well as up  and coming talents in architecture, to design the iconic look of IBM as a brand. In working this  way, Noyes and the Eames Office helped establish one of the first notable design partnerships in  the history of The United States, creating iconic collaborations both in and out of World’s Fairs.  These projects ultimately allowed the Eameses to define the look of IBM and structure a positive  relationship between the corporation and The United States, and given such freedom to entirely  script their own films and other projects for IBM, were ultimately a way for IBM to promote the  Eameses internal values4.  

Part 1: The 1958 Brussels Worlds Fair 

Charles and Ray produced their first animated short film for IBM’s pavilion at the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair. The theme of the fair that year had been “nuclear energy working for  peace,” meaning that the goal of the pavilion was to showcase the humanity of machines5, especially in a post WWII world. Entitled The Informative Machine, or Creative Man and the  Data Processor, the film was the first project for World’s Fairs between IBM and the Eames  Office. An early look at explaining computers to a general audience, with an aesthetic which will change within the same decade within the context of World’s Fairs, Information Machine  embodies a less technological, albeit still futuristic and utopian, approach to the future of  computing. 

The Information Machine presents an introduction to computers as a culmination of tools  and systems created throughout history made to process this information , humanizing the6 computer by suggesting that humans had long strived to create it, and finally were able to. The  process of how the computer is created as a series of trial and error over time by creatives plays  well into the Eameses values of education. For Charles and Ray, an enthusiasm for computers  helped forward these works, particularly Charles who held the belief that in taking apart things  and showing them as simple as the binary code that made up computer language itself, was a  great way to teach others. Coupled with their motivations to use new technology in their7 furnishings to make accessible, good quality furniture for many, it would make sense their first  animation foray would be a didactic and whimsical look at computers. The Information Machine  celebrates education as a system of trial and error, mixing fantasy and reality.

Figures 1, 2, and 3 - Characters and a scene from The Information Machine (1958) 


Scenes from the film (Figures 1 and 2) show a man with a genie lamp asking for three wishes, and an  Enlightmentent era scientist solving mathematical equations creating the foreground for the  creativity and imagination necessary for humans to finally arrive at the computer. In mixing both  elements of fantasy and science, the film helps create a much friendlier attitude in understanding  the computer. In another scene, (Figure 3), the idea of data processing is depicted as a fantastical  machine, made of many gears and parts, working and huffing smoke together. These animations,  hand drawn, showcased a rather Eamesean idea of science and learning as fun to do, rather than a  rigid and scholarly pursuit. For writer Merrill Schleier, the computer for the Eameses is “not a  threatening behemoth, but an interesting array of abstract patterns, an orderly aesthetics that “can  bring a new dignity to mankind.”

This level of passion and expertise could only have been possible with the help of Eliot  Noyes as major collaborator of the project. Helping to fund their first animated film for IBM, the  Eameses process were similar to IBM’s point in advancing computers, in that one of their many  goals was to stretch the possibilities of the new materials and technology available to them as  designers. Constantly renewing, IBM and The Eames Office were a perfect fit to work on these9 projects together. Eliot Noyes, glad to give them the funds to produce these films for the  perfectionists Charles and Ray, also allowed them to fund their first animation project through  this film. This freedom for the Eameses allowed them to contact and employ the help of  animators such as Dolores Cannata and Glen Fleck, who helped animate based off sketches from  Charles. This style was hallmarked by a hand-drawn simplicity that felt childlike and very10 contemporary to the children’s cartoons of the time, brought computers into the realm of the  human more succinctly. 

The films ending, with an animation of a rose transforming into a heart, was the final  humanizing touch that someone such as Ray would have exemplified outside of film. The trait of  a great host, it was a final parting gift to viewers, which exemplified the kind of warm-hearted  feelings the Eameses hoped those learning to use computers would get, and that their film had  helped promote that. Rather than ending on some supposed future far from now, to end on the  “now” was a more effective way for IBM’s animated film to entice viewers at the Brussels World’s Fair into computers. It helped promote IBM as a company which cared about humans  and computers as a relationship that can be built of trust and a genuine human drive for  ingenuity, rather than on fears and supposed “what-ifs”. Perhaps the greatest act of hospitality  The Information Machine was capable of was in promoting the idea that anyone had the capacity  to think like a designer. 

Part 2: The 1964 New York World’s Fair 

The collaboration between The Eames Office and IBM saw their most ambitious and  meticulous project yet at the IBM Pavilion at the 1964-64 New York World’s Fair. This pavilion  was the host of various activities and elements, worked on as well with the architecture office of  Eero Saarinen (who died shortly before the fair in 1961) and then consequently worked on by  office associates Kevin Roche and John Dinkeloo. Collaborating with this expert team of  architects allowed the IBM pavilion to be one of the fair’s most memorable spaces because of the  sheer amount of activities allowed inside, as well as helped evolve the multi-screen technique for  films seen in other World’s Fair pavilion films by the Eameses, with the final product and main  attraction, the film Think, able to fully capture a love for education and hosting that the Eameses  promoted so heavily. Charles and Ray Eames promoted the pavilion as “a very special brand of  fun,” due its hybridity of design, entertainment and ultimately corporate sponsorship.11

The pavilion itself had been made of two parts: one central structure acting as a base, and  one structure topping it called The Ovioid. This egg like structure, imprinted with the words12 IBM all over, had guests climb inside on a “people wall,” a hydraulic left with 400 seats in a  theater, where hosts dressed in tuxedos would drop down to invite the audience to watch Think.13 Here, the host would welcome everyone to the IBM Information Machine, a callback to the  Eames earlier film, but also a poignant metaphor for the style of film Think was. Presented on 22  screens of varying sizes, the film explored problem solving from small scale to large scale as a  rapid fire burst of images and thoughts, replicating the human minds thinking and the thinking of  the computer simultaneously, helping to create the humanizing link between computers and  humans by implying that the brain and the computer were more similar than once imagined.

Figure 4 - Introduction to IBM Pavilion Brochure for 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair. Scanned at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Library.

A page from the IBM Pavilion brochure (Figure 4) aims to explore the goals of the pavilion,  stating “We want to share with you some of the excitement wee feel about one of man’s most  valuable tools—the computer.” Here, the friendliness and directed conversational tone of the ad  copy suggests the type of guest-host relationship important to the Eameses by making everyone  feel special, as if the creators of the pavilion were speaking directly to you. Think was also an  educational opportunity for the Eames Office to expand their multiscreen experiences as an  extension of their furniture building. The designs of these film experiences were similar to their  furniture, in that they provided a framework for viewers and users to mix and match, one with  screens and one with furniture in the home. Spaces, just like the experience of the multi-screen14 film, were subject to new interpretations constantly; one can come to see Think and see new  things they hadn’t seen before, as well as decorating around the modern furniture of the Eames  could lead to new and exciting possibilities for the home itself. As much as Think allowed the  Eames Office to explore their creative and design process more, it also inspired viewers to think  highly of their own problem solving. Think’s main success was in equating problem solving of all  levels, be it solving how to decorate a dining table or designing for urban planning, at the same  level. In short, it was a more focused extension of how The Information Machine believed  everyone was capable of being a designer: here, everyone was able to compute.   The guest/host experience was elevated by a few specific features of the pavilion: first,  the different experiences had actual hosts who ushered different participants into events.

Figure 5 - Little Theater Puppet Shows from brochure of IBM Pavillion at 1964-1965 New York  World’s Fair. Scanned at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Library.


Figure 6 - The Automatic Language Translation Machine as seen in the brochure of IBM Pavillion at 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair. Scanned at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Library.


Second, other types of events at the IBM Pavilion, such as Little Theaters, which used animatronic puppet  shows (Figure 5) and Automatic Language Translation (Figure 6) allowed guests of multiple ages  and nationalities to both learn about and use computers in ways that were accessible to them.  This all encompassing approach was particularly important to Eliot Noyes, who had considered  hiring Walt Disney and Buckminster Fuller originally for the pavilion, perhaps in helping to  create this family friendly and international feel for the show. Perhaps the most important part15 of hosting, then, was keeping the happiness intact, something far more difficult to do as the Cold  War ran on, the image of the computer was in flux. The IBM Pavilion, in keeping a happy face to  audiences, was able to hide the applications of computing most used at the time, which was through the military, as well as hiding the human labor that helped create these giant machines.16 This was a particular problem that IBM had to tackle, as they had to approach the soon to be  future of computers in use by “non-specialist users,”. Thus, the aesthetic of the pavilion, which17 in turn would become the aesthetic experience of the ideology of using computers, had to be  designed in a way that once again, appealed to various audiences that helped suggest that  computers were shaped by humans, and not the other way around. Thus, setting the pavilion up  in the carnival-like atmosphere with marquee theater lights and hosts acting like circus  ringleaders (the Circus a particularly big focus for Charles and Ray) was the perfect way to make  the guest feel “at home” with computers. Most importantly, the design of the pavilion never18 portrayed IBM as a billion dollar corporation, instead designing the pavilion in the style of a  garden and showcasing the company as helping to propel mathematic and scientific  advancements for humankind, ultimately positioning IBM in the World’s Fair as a socially  conscious company. However, as good hosts, as well as leaders in education, Charles and Ray19 seemed to move away from the impressive multi-screen experience of Think for exploring  computers with IBM. Although their reactions to criticisms were not known, they had picked up  what not to do at other pavilions, with Ray calling some of the multi-screen shows from Expo  in Montreal “rather frivolous,” and opting to have multiple images and rapid action on just on  screen, rather than on multiple for their other film ventures for IBM.20

Part 3: The San Antonio Hemisfair, 1968 

Figure 7 - Introduction to IBM Pavilion Brochure for the Hemisfair 1968 in San Antonio, Texas. Image courtesy of http://www.worldsfair68.info/.

The film the Eames Office created for the Hemisfair in San Antonio, Texas in 1968, A  Computer Glossary, or Coming to Terms with The Data Processing Machine, was one of two  exhibitions at the IBM Pavilion for that year. Computer Glossary was, according to a brochure  inset, “an absorbing new color movie about computers,” (Figure 7) and was part of the IBM  Pavilion’s “Lakeside Pavilion,” one of two created for the fair, where the film was shown in a  small plaza with a monorail roving on the top. The film, mixing both live action shots of the  interiors of computers alongside animation, introduces various computer related terms, with  literal slides of definitions for these new terms. This film was the most broadly educational and21 informative film on computers by the Eames Office yet. Enlisting the help of a specialist from  IBM to write the script named Lynn Stoller, to be as scientifically accurate as possible, as well as  Glenn Fleck to help bring “meaning to the film, the film is decidedly different in temperament22 in regards to the humanization of computers from earlier Eames/IBM collaborations. For one,  this film had the unfortunate element of being emblematic of one of the most common criticisms  of their multimedia exhibitions, which is that they were an onslaught of text, objects and ideas all  at once. Their other films, whether they be multiple screens which were hard to focus on, or23 mixing elements of science and fantasy, had been less packed with actual facts for the user to  take from. It seems that this project could only have happened later on in the Eames career of  working with IBM; as their own understanding of computers grew, so did their desire to showcase the actual facts of what is going on within them grow.

Figure 8 - Screenshot from A Computer Glossary (1968).

Figure 9 - Brochure for A Computer Glossary (1968), image courtesy of Randall Ross IBM Centric Eames Archive, at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Library.


The film humanized the  computer by showcasing animations of normal activities like waking up next to schematics  showing data processing (Figure 8) which would be shown rather quickly, similar to how quickly  the images would change on the multiple screens in Think. Instead of showcasing the elements of  problem solving or creative problem solving as elements of computing that would acclimate  humans to using them, Computer Glossary firmly placed us in the same realm of existence as  computers as well.  The film had been accompanied by a flyer which showcased all the definitions of the  film, given out as a souvenir at the Fair (Figure 9), serving both as a small souveneir of the fair,  as well as extending the guest-host relationship by having the information learned from the fair  on-hand to go back and reference. The smaller scale of this film and exhibition would be shrunk  more in their final collaboration with IBM and World’s Fairs, moving away from film to the  small paper good souvenir altogether. 

Part 4: Osaka Expo ’70 

The work for the IBM pavilion at Expo ’70 by the Eames Office was minimal, but  ultimately a sentimental nod and goodbye to their work for these pavilions. For this pavilion, the  Eames Office created The Computer House of Cards , a set of stackable playing cards that used24 the same format as their original House of Cards but with colorful and close up images of the  inner workings of computers. 

Figure 10 - Computer House of Cards Souveneir from IBM Pavilion at Expo 70. Image courtesy  of Eames Office website. https://www.eamesoffice.com/the-work/computer-house-of-cards/
The Computer House of Cards is perhaps the most exact and specific exemplification of  the Eames desire to teach the general public about computers. Each card showed a new part and  view of a computer (Figure 10) which, when built together, would mimic the experience of a  user building a computer themselves. These close up glimpses of the interiors of a computers  machinations were “Eamesian,” in that they are colorful, bright and celebrate their love for  technology. In the pursuit of their own education alongside computers, this card set lifted from  the film from the past fair, Computer Glossary, and the work on the film had inspired this limited  edition card set. Being connected to IBM allowed them to be able to make these high quality  photographs of computers, as well as even having a printing run for them.   The Computer House of Cards is an evolution from their films not only because of the  similar imagery and subject material, but because they represented an experimental medium in  order to educate someone. What the original house of Cards allowed the user to do was to  rearrange and order cultural objects within the world by linking them together via stacking and  connecting the cards. Thus, new views and understandings of the images on the cards, as well as  how they related to each other, could be established. This unconventional method of learning25 was cemented in Charles and Ray Eames idea of play as a valuable medium for learning.

Figure 11 - Brochure accompanying Computer House of Cards, Image courtesy of Eames Office  website. https://www.eamesoffice.com/the-work/computer-house-of-cards/.

Figure 12 - Japanese Flyer for IBM Pavilion at Expo 70 on bottom left corner, image courtesy of Randall Ross IBM-Centric Eames Archive, at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Library.

In the case of Computer House of Cards, the images were accompanied with a brochure (Figure 11)  that explained what was on each image, helping a user more deeply understand the process of  how computers work, thus illuminating the data processing system for a new audience to try at  home, well before the presence of home computers being as widely available as they are today.  Another example of this hospitality is what seems to be a small flyer given out in Japan that  looks to allude to the Computer House of Cards itself, showing Japanese tourists having fun at  the IBM pavilion. (Figure 12). This flyer would have accompanied by installations by IBM of  the first Japanese Kanji Printer (released in Japan as the IBM 2245), which was a data  processing system capable of using Kanji, a Japanese alphabet lifted from Japanese. IBM,26 choosing to advertise to a Japanese audience, also saw the Eames create memorabilia that was  for them, extending the guest-host relationship in a way that defined national origin. Unlike other  cards from the House of Cards series, these cards had no English text on them, making them  usable to a variety of audiences internationally who had come to visit the fair.  

Conclusion 

The work created by The Eames Office in partnership with IBM was ultimately a product  of Charles and Ray Eames desire to be lifelong students. Their projects for the World’s Fairs27 had been seen millions of people, and were the originators of an idea of humanizing and  popularizing technology for new audiences regardless of age or background. These pavilions28 were often the first glimpse into computing for many people around the world. Although the technology these pavilions reference are now dated, and the view of computers has shifted wildly  due to how quickly they have developed over the 20th, and into the 21st century, the Eames  helped promote an idea of the human as part of the computational process which cannot be  shaken off. Future views of computers would see people desiring the computer not only to solve  mathematical problems, but as a tool of communication around the world, leading to the rise of  the Internet and social media and cellphones. In their analog way, the Eameses and IBM cemented a path for computers that would evolve them to be extensions of the human, not just humanized.


Citations:

1Justus Nieland, "Making Happy, Happy-making: The Eameses and Communication by Design,” in Modernism and Affect, edited by Taylor Julie, 203-25. (Edinburgh: Edinburgh  University Press, 2015), 220.
2John Harwood, "The White Room: Eliot Noyes and the Logic of the Information Age Interior,” Grey Room, no. 12 (2003): 8.
3John Harwood, "The White Room: Eliot Noyes and the Logic of the Information Age Interior,” Grey Room, no. 12 (2003): 12.
4Eric Schuldenfrei, The Films of Charles and Ray Eames: A Universal Sense of Expectation (London: Rutledge, 2016), 182.
5Merrill Schleier, Skyscraper Cinema: Architecture and Gender in American Film (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2009), 239.
6https://www.eamesoffice.com/the-work/the-information-machine/ 
7Pat Kirkham, Charles and Ray Eames: Designers of the Twentieth Century (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1998), 347.
8Merrill Schleier, Skyscraper Cinema: Architecture and Gender in American Film (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2009), 241.
9Pat Kirkham, Charles and Ray Eames: Designers of the Twentieth Century (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1998), 201.
10Pat Kirkham, Charles and Ray Eames: Designers of the Twentieth Century (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1998), 347.
11Zoë Ryan, As Seen: Exhibitions That Made Architecture and Design History (Chicago : The Art Institute of Chicago, 2017), 82.
12https://www.eamesoffice.com/the-work/think-2/
13Beatriz Colomina, "Enclosed by Images: The Eameses' Multimedia Architecture," Grey Room, no. 2 (2001): 20.
14Beatriz Colomina, "Enclosed by Images: The Eameses' Multimedia Architecture," Grey Room, no. 2 (2001): 22.
15John Harwood, The Interface: IBM and the Transformation of Corporate Design, 1945–1976, (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2011), 183.
16Richard Barbook, Imaginary Futures: From Thinking Machines to the Global Village (London: Pluto Press, 2007), 18.
17John Harwood, The Interface: IBM and the Transformation of Corporate Design, 1945–1976, (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2011), 197.
18John Harwood, The Interface: IBM and the Transformation of Corporate Design, 1945–1976, (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2011), 199.
19Eric Schuldenfrei, The Films of Charles and Ray Eames: A Universal Sense of Expectation (London: Rutledge, 2016), 178.
20Pat Kirkham, Charles and Ray Eames: Designers of the Twentieth Century (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1998), 328.
21https://www.eamesoffice.com/the-work/a-computer-glossary-2/
22Paul Schrader. "Poetry of Ideas: The Films of Charles Eames," Film Quarterly 23, no. 3 (1970): 16.
23Pat Kirkham, Charles and Ray Eames: Designers of the Twentieth Century (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1998), 369.
24https://www.eamesoffice.com/the-work/computer-house-of-cards/ 
25Eric Schuldenfrei, The Films of Charles and Ray Eames: A Universal Sense of Expectation (London: Rutledge, 2016), 30.
26Kurt Hensch, IBM History of Far Eastern languages in Computing: National Language Support since 1961: Looking to East Asia (Sindelfingen: Roehm, 2004), 45.
27Pat Kirkham, Charles and Ray Eames: Designers of the Twentieth Century (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1998), 380.
28Pat Kirkham, Charles and Ray Eames: Designers of the Twentieth Century (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1998), 369.

Bibliography:

Barbrook, Richard. Imaginary Futures: From Thinking Machines to the Global Village. London:  Pluto Press, 2007. 

Colomina, Beatriz. "Enclosed by Images: The Eameses' Multimedia Architecture." Grey Room,  no. 2 (2001): 7-29. 

Harwood, John. "The White Room: Eliot Noyes and the Logic of the Information Age Interior." Grey Room, no. 12 (2003): 7-31. 

Harwood, John. The Interface: IBM and the Transformation of Corporate Design, 1945–1976.  Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2011. 

Hensch, Kurt. IBM History of Far Eastern Languages in Computing: National Language Support Since 1961: Looking to East Asia. Sindelfingen: Roehm, 2004. 

Julie, Taylor, ed. Modernism and Affect. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2015. 

Kirkham, Pat. Charles and Ray Eames: Designers of the Twentieth Century. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1998. 

Ryan, Zoë. As Seen: Exhibitions That Made Architecture and Design History. Chicago: The Art  Institute of Chicago, 2017. 

Schleier, Merrill. Skyscraper Cinema: Architecture and Gender in American Film. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2009. 

Schrader, Paul. "Poetry of Ideas: The Films of Charles Eames." Film Quarterly 23, no. 3 (1970):  2-19. 

Schuldenfrei, Eric. The Films of Charles and Ray Eames: A Universal Sense of Expectation.  London: Rutledge, 2016.