essayArchitecture
The replica and the original
Architectural copies of lost structures require reckoning with history and heritage. At what cost is the past rebuilt?
Elizabeth Kostina
videoMaking
On the Norwegian coast, a tree is transformed into a boat the old-fashioned way
6 minutes
videoNature and landscape
California’s landscapes provide endless inspiration for a woodcut printmaker
10 minutes
videoHistory of technology
Replicating Shakespearean-era printing brings its own dramas and comedy
19 minutes
essayDesign and fashion
When luxury is good
The waste and exploitation of fast fashion shouldn’t blind us to the joys of making beautiful clothing with care
Roger Tredre
videoMaking
Forging a cello from pieces of wood demands its own form of virtuosity
27 minutes
essayAnthropology
Your body is an archive
If human knowledge can disappear so easily, why have so many cultural practices survived without written records?
Helena Miton
videoMaking
Trek to a remote Himalayan village where artisans craft teapots fit for kings
11 minutes
essayConsciousness and altered states
Acid media
How perforated squares of trippy blotter paper allowed outlaw chemists and wizard-alchemists to dose the world with LSD
Erik Davis
videoArt
From a pencil sketch to cherubs dancing in stone – recreating a Donatello work
7 minutes
videoDance and theatre
How a Noh mask-maker summons a lifelike face from a single block of wood
16 minutes
videoDesign and fashion
Refined towards imperfection – a ceramic artist recreates a rare Korean treasure
15 minutes
videoMaking
From log to Go board – the world’s oldest game, made the old-fashioned way
20 minutes
videoDesign and fashion
From sheep to sea – an ode to the iconic sweater that warms Cornish sailors
4 minutes
videoFood and drink
From set-up to close, a day at the farmers market is a whirlwind sensory feast
10 minutes
videoRituals and celebrations
From roaring fire and molten glass an artist creates a healing ritual
13 minutes
videoMaking
Ceramic designs spin to life in a tactile meditation on the art of pottery
9 minutes
videoArchitecture
How the Dorze in Ethiopia make ‘beehive’ houses from bamboo that last a lifetime
35 minutes
videoTechnology and the self
‘Perfection is for the gods,’ and this sculptor gets to a thousandth of an inch of it
14 minutes
videoInformation and communication
There are many ways to make a flat map of the world – each of them a unique distortion
10 minutes
videoMaking
How sky-high dreams launched one man’s audacious life in homemade rocketry
5 minutes
videoArchitecture
Cultural wisdom begets cozy temporary homes for the Nenets of the Siberian Arctic
32 minutes
essayArchaeology
The clothing revolution
What if the need for fabric, not food, in the face of a changing climate is what first tipped humanity towards agriculture?
Ian Gilligan
essayArt
Changed by art
Gazing at a painting feels like an almost magical encounter with another mind but what real effects does art have on us?
Ellen Winner