The Information Machine (1957)

Charles and Ray produced this film for IBM’s pavilion at the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair. The Information Machine was the first completely animated project produced by the Eames Office. Intended as an introduction to the electronic computer, the film depicts the computer as the culmination of the tools and systems we have created over the centuries to process information. It also explores how humans solved problems both before and after this technology was invented. The Information Machine is ultimately the story of our continual need to process and communicate larger and more complex amounts of data, and how we learn to manipulate abstractions with increasing sophistication and skill.