Culture
video
Design and fashion
From sheep to sea – an ode to the iconic sweater that warms Cornish sailors
4 minutes
essay
Animals and humans
Semiotics of dogs
In all its baroque and sometimes cruelly overbred forms, the dog is a paramount symbol of both human hopes and foibles
Katrina Gulliver
video
History of technology
Unravelling the surprisingly epic story of the world’s oldest pair of trousers
45 minutes
essay
Design and fashion
The Waste Age
Recognising that waste is central, not peripheral, to everything we design, make and do is key to transforming the future
Justin McGuirk
video
Information and communication
There are many ways to make a flat map of the world – each of them a unique distortion
10 minutes
video
Design and fashion
Gear up for a stylish celebration of vintage motorcycle design
6 minutes
video
Home
How our rooms shape our world, and vice versa
3 minutes
video
Mathematics
Delight as the hard-edged world melts into a full-rainbow spectrum of reality
2 minutes
video
Design and fashion
Pre-Hispanic and colonial traditions combine in Mario’s uniquely Mexican artworks
6 minutes
video
Engineering
Simple objects make for epic art installations of sound and movement
20 minutes
video
Design and fashion
The only thing more entrancing than a marbled book cover is the process that creates it
13 minutes
essay
Design and fashion
What do shoes do?
Partly of the earth, partly of our body, the shoe sits on the edge of an ontological threshold. Where can it transport us?
Randy Laist
video
Architecture
The best home is a joyfully inhabited one – doubly so if its residents are design legends
11 minutes
video
Design and fashion
‘I make shoes because of beauty. Not because of shoes’ – on craft as a calling
3 minutes
video
Design and fashion
How do you bring an 18th-century ceramic teapot to life? An artist puzzles it out
7 minutes
video
Sports and games
Watch Charles and Ray Eames put their 1969 spin on one of the world’s oldest toys
8 minutes
video
Anthropology
From stockings to wig, this is how to dress like a proper (18th-century) gentleman
5 minutes
video
Design and fashion
What’s as satisfying as a good book? Seeing one made the old-fashioned way, by hand
2 minutes
essay
Design and fashion
A theory of style
We can analyse how fashion works by breaking it down into networks of style elements. What role, then, for human creativity?
Frédéric Godart & Charles Galunic
video
Design and fashion
Meat, mobility scooters, condoms – anything we make can be made in miniature
5 minutes
video
Nations and empires
Flying the flag with the tricolores, herring salads and cuadrilongas of the world
4 minutes
essay
Design and fashion
The universal design ideal
At every turn, the design of our environments either creates barriers or opens doors. Let’s design a more humane world
Anna Leahy
video
Making
Forged by craft: the last axes made by eye and muscle, before automation took over
11 minutes
video
Design and fashion
Liras, drachmas and kroons: coins before the euro tell their own stories
2 minutes