Macguffin #11 2022
MacGuffin Magazine has a pretty special concept: Each issue of MacGuffin takes a close look at one unassuming everyday object to reveal its hidden complexity and stories. Through scrupulous, illuminating research this magazine unearths historical delights, exposes unusual viewpoints and changes our perspective.
Born out of boredom with the design world, this design magazine by an editorial team of architects and art historians does not focus on the latest trends, iconic designs or an endless stream of new objects, but concentrates on the much wider story of what an object becomes when it enters our day-to-day life, and on what it reveals in turn about us. In this way, each issue becomes a fascinating and amusing gem of meticulous research and design enthusiasm.
The latest issue is about the chain – one of the most contradictory of objects. Worn with love since time immemorial, it is also the ultimate symbol of slavery and suffering. Linking together royals and rappers, cycling skirts and classic scarfs, caged wrestlers and medieval warriors, hyperlinks and haunted houses, Baltic protestors and Cuban revolutionaries…
Btw the word MacGuffin is not the name of a Scotsman, but comes from the film world, from Hitchcock himself to be precise. It describes an object that serves to trigger the plot in a film without being of any particular use itself. A typical MacGuffin is, for example, a bag with the loot from a bank robbery. It is of central relevance for the protagonists, but for the plot the bag is of secondary importance. The story revolves around the chase and the resulting dramatic situations. Similarly, for each issue of MacGuffin, the object is only the starting point from which we delve into human behaviour, culture, traditions and history, uncovering the personal and sometimes curious relationships we have with the things that surround us.
