In the short film Bead Game (1977) by the acclaimed Indian-Canadian filmmaker Ishu Patel, stopmotion animation of coloured glass beads offers a beautiful yet dark vision of life, characterised by brutal cycles of competition and consumption. Beginning with a single bead, a series of organisms – real and imagined – split, combine, transform and devour one another, yielding first the emergence of human forms, and eventually the horrors of nuclear war. Inspired by the beadwork of Inuit women, Patel’s dazzling and urgent response to the atomic age won critical acclaim upon its release, receiving a BAFTA award for Best Short Fictional Film and an Academy Award nomination for Best Short Film (Animated).
videoMathematics
Spiral into the ‘golden ratio’ – and separate the myths from the maths
4 minutes
videoArchitecture
A lush tour of Fallingwater – the Frank Lloyd Wright design that changed architecture
14 minutes
videoFilm and visual culture
Space and time expand, contract and combust in this propulsive animation
5 minutes
videoBiology
Butterflies become unrecognisable landscapes when viewed under electron microscopes
4 minutes
videoArt
Background music was the radical invention of a trailblazing composer
17 minutes
videoGender
A filmmaker responds to Lars von Trier’s call for a new muse with a unique application
16 minutes
videoEvolution
The many ways a lizard tongue sticks, grasps, pinches and plops – in slo-mo
6 minutes
videoBiology
Starlings swoosh like brushstrokes across the sky in this dazzling short
3 minutes
videoBeauty and aesthetics
In art, the sublime is a feedback loop, evolving with whatever’s next to threaten us
9 minutes