By: Marlow Hoffman

Right now  at the Eames Office in Santa Monica, California, we’re working on a very exciting project that feels a bit like a treasure hunt, and I’m hopeful some of WMA’s eWestmuse subscribers can help.

In the 1960s, the noted husband-and-wife design team created a beautiful timeline of the history of mathematics from 1000 AD to the present.  IBM gave away the timelines to schools around the world for over 20 years.  Teachers still swear by it, and we get requests frequently for it from people who assume it was made recently.  The original version includes about 1000 images and other graphical elements.

For years, the Eames family has hoped to make this educational resource available to the general public in digital format.  The advent of iPads and other tablets has created the logical means.  Thanks to programming support from IBM, we are turning Charles and Ray’s original timeline into an interactive version called Minds of Modern Mathematics.

Now, here’s where you come in:  if you visit the Eames Office Facebook page – you’ll see about two-dozen images posted that we need your help in identifying.  We need to obtain the rights for all of these works or prove that they are in public domain, but before we can do that we have to track down the images themselves.

Our deadline is quickly approaching, so flex those cultural, art historical and mathematical muscles by taking a stab at it now!  Your input is much appreciated.

Image:  Also from the Mathematica Time Line--is this simply a character, or is it a specific symbol? Look forward to your insights so we can figure this one out.

Since her last WMA blog post, Will Work for Food: Curatorial Position and Cake Preferred, Marlow Hoffman was recently employed by the Eames Office in Santa Monica, California, dedicated to communicating, preserving and extending the work of Charles and Ray Eames. Hoffman supports the Powers of Ten project and blog, based on the 1977 film of the same name. The Eames’ Powers of Ten Thinking is a form of rich, cross-disciplinary thought that approaches ideas from multiple interrelated perspectives, ranging from the infinitesimal to the cosmic.