MacGuffin #12 – The Log

For the 30th edition of our Surprise Subscription (that’s two and a half years’s worth of Surprises!) we’re throwing it back to the very first installment, with the help of one of our very favourite magazines: the mighty MacGuffin. Born out of boredom with the design world, MacGuffin doesn’t bother with hot trends, “iconic” designs, or an endless stream of new objects: instead, they focus on the wider story of what an object becomes when it enters our day-to-day life, and on what it reveals about us.

MacGuffin’s newest issue, ‘The Log’, is both a fascinating counterpoint to and a natural evolution from its previous offerings, which have focused on the already-designed object – the Rug, the Trousers, the Desk, the Cabinet. By contrast, a log is not something one would necessarily consider a design object. At least on first glance.

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But it’s precisely in that leap of intuition – making manifest the secret connections and effects that objects, purpose-made or otherwise, have on our lives – that MacGuffin operates.

‘The Log’ is divided into three parts: Tree, Trunk and Timber. Each part reveals aspects of the life cycle of the log that often go unconsidered: you’ll meet the loggers of the Glomma river in Norway (in Tree), be drawn into a poetic essay on the desirability of wormwood and the consequence of human intervention into ecosystems (in Trunk), and investigate the significance of the Log Lady to David Lynch’s cult TV show ‘Twin Peaks’ (in Timber). And of course there’s much, much more to discover.

To accompany our subscribers in their journey into the world of MacGuffin’s ‘Log’, we gifted them with their very own piece of the story of wood. Inspired by editor Ernst van Hoeven’s project ‘Sticks, Picks & Party Tricks’, featured in the issue, we gave them a toothpick to fiddle with it as they read, use it as an impromptu bookmark, pick their teeth with it if they needed to (after all this is what those are supposed to be for), and be reminded – we are all part of the story, too.

We also made a selection of  further reading material, because trees, wood and forrest have been a hot topic lately, that you should not miss.

Log Books – A MacGuffin Reading List:

Material Ideologies – Lina Bo Bardi

Forest Mind – Ursula Biermann

Formafantasma – Cambio

(Rare book, email if you’re interested)

Autoprogetazzione? – Enzo Mari

198 Wood Joints – Elias Guenon

My Grandfather’s Tree – Max Lamb

(Rare book, email if you’re interested)

Artek and the Aaltos

Sweet Wood – Vaclav Pozarek