“Mathematica” at the Henry Ford Museum @ Detroit Free Press
The conversations around “Mathematica: A World of Numbers … and Beyond” the newest permanent installation at the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation, initially began in 2008 between the museum and the office of influential Mid-century modern designers Charles and Ray Eames, and gained momentum in the summer of 2014.
Over several years of planning and restoration, that vision has been realized, with the debut of “Mathematica” at the Henry Ford Museum in September of this year. The permanent installation displays the working and interactive math machines — a landmark achievement of information design and playful Modernist visualization of some of the foundational concepts in mathematics.
“I met with Lucia Eames, Charles’s daughter,” said Marc Greuther, the Henry Ford, where he has worked for the past 27 years and holds several titles, including chief curator. “They’d (the Eames Office) gained possession of this version of ‘Mathematica,’ and they were trying to figure out strategies for deploying it. They didn’t want to hold it in storage, and were really eager to see it work. Ultimately when they contacted us in 2014, it was really with this notion of getting it visible to a visiting public, and to do it as a whole.”