THE DRAG AND EAMES

Becky YangRachel Surnow

Theresa LeeAmy Woo

LA PASTLIVES

A wonderful, photo-filled coffee table book, Eames Design; The Work of the Office of Charles and Ray Eames, includes a 1969 Q & A session with Charles Eames and Madame L’Amic of the Musée des Arts Decoratifs, in conjunction with a design exhibit at the Louvre.

AN INTERVIEW WITH CHARLES EAMES

By Keasha Palmer MARCH 22, 2010

RUTH BOWMAN: I have come here on a Monday af-ternoon and interrupted your day to talk with you a little bit about the past, which I guess is partly on your mind now anyway, because all of the things that you are doing are bringing the past up to the present.

ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEW WITH RAY EAMES

19 8 0 J U LY 2 8 - AU G . 2 0

“Eventually everything connects — people, ideas, objects.”

“Eventually everything connects — people, ideas, objects.”

- Charles Eames

Here are a few choice tidbits from that session (which, by the way, was later used as the audio track for a film the Eames Office made on the design process called, “Design Q&A”).

RAY KAISER EAMES: Yes, more or less.

Q: What is your definition of design?

A: A plan for arranging elements in such a way as to best accom-plish a particular purpose.

Q: What are the boundaries of design?

A: What are the boundaries of problems?

Q: Does the creation of design admit constraint?

A: Design depends largely on constraints.

Q: What constraints?

A: The sum of all constraints. Here is one of the few effective keys to the design problem: the ability of the designer to recognize as many of the constraints as possible (and) his willingness and enthusiasm for working within these con-straints—the constraints of price, size, strength, balance, surface, time, etc.; each problem has its own peculiar list.

Q: To whom does design address itself: to the greatest number (the masses)? The specialists…the en-lightened amateur…a privileged social class?

A: To the need.

“I never gave up painting, I just changed my palette.”

- Ray Eames

RUTH BOWMAN: I was interested in reading through the material I’ve collected through the years about you and Charles to see that there was a long history, from 1907 to 1940, of Charles, and then you appear in the biographical material in 1940. Is that when you met him?

RAY KAISER EAMES: Yes, 1940, at Cranbrook.

RUTH BOWMAN: You were at Cranbrook!

RAY KAISER EAMES: I was at Cranbrook for a very short time. I realize it didn’t . . . I only realized it the other day when I went back and everyone was expecting to hear a great deal about Cran-brook, and I counted the days, and there were not very many. But I had gone there in 1940 on my way to California because a dear friend had been there and thought it was a good idea, as I was talking. I was coming out here to build a house. My mother had died, and I had been in New York for many years and thought it was time that I came back to Califor-nia.

“We're born naked, and the rest is drag.”

- RuPaul

“We're born naked, and the rest is drag.”

- RuPaul

However, my one concern is that with reality TV, it seems that being on TV is enough, and I hope that drag queens don’t fall into that trap. We must continue to be creative, be outra-geous, and be entertaining. After all, drag queens will be the ones to save the world in 2012. But what the hell do I know? I’m just happy that I’m still working and paying off my mortgage!

– Coco Peru

However, my one concern is that with reality TV, it seems that being on TV is enough, and I hope that drag queens don’t fall into that trap. We must continue to be creative, be outra-geous, and be entertaining. After all, drag queens will be the ones to save the world in 2012. But what the hell do I know? I’m just happy that I’m still working and paying off my mortgage!

– Coco Peru

I want people to realize, that it's okay to make mistakes,

it's okay to fall down. Get up, look sickening, and Make Them

Eat It!– Coco Peru

I want people to realize, that it's okay to make mistakes,

it's okay to fall down. Get up, look sickening, and Make Them

Eat It!– Coco Peru