In 1977, American designers Charles and Ray Eames completed their second film under the title, Powers of Ten,^[i] based on the book, Cosmic View, by Dutch engineer Cornelius (Kees) Boeke.^[ii] Boeke and the Eames intended to demonstrate the concept of scale through incrementally zooming out to the macrocosmic scale of the visible universe and zooming in to the microscopic scale of the nucleus of an atom. For Boeke, the concept of a cosmic view would illustrate the interconnectedness of everything, positioning the experience of humans within a continuum of perceptible and imperceptible worlds.

^[i] The first version of the film was created in 1968 and called A Rough Sketch for a Proposed Film Dealing with the Powers of Ten and the Relative Size of Things in the Universe. Title of the second version of a film by Charles and Ray Eames, Powers of Ten: A Film Dealing with the Relative Size of Things in the Universe and the Effect of Adding Another Zero, 1977.

^[ii] Kees Boeke, Cosmic View: The Universe in 40 Jumps, New York: The John Day Company, 1957.