Can a magazine be a design school? Or a design school a magazine? This autumn, MacGuffin and Swiss art and design school ECAL present the results of their collaboration during the 4th Istanbul Design Biennial, which is all about design as learning, and learning as design. The exhibition explores the ways in which the two can enrich  the other.

Last autumn, Dutch product designer Chris Kabel tutored Bachelor Industrial Design students at ECAL in collaboration  with design magazine MacGuffin. The students used the magazine’s editorial model as a methodology to study the use of everyday things and  to design objects derived from them. 

They modelled their approach on the way the magazine themes its issues, and chose MacGuffins like The Roof, The Shade, The Wheel, The Ruler,  The Lock and The Socle as the focus of their investigations.

Their research resulted in a range  of observational studies, contextual reportages and visual essays on the materiality of the objects, to be used  as a basis for designing new objects. The outcome is an exciting collection  of narratives and objects that explore The Life of Things, presented in the form of a 3D magazine. From Umbrella Stories and Wheel Stoppers to Real-Life Rulers and a platform for the Bottom of Things.

22 September – 4 November 2018.

The Life of Things
Istanbul Design Biennial – A School of Schools, curated by Jan Boelen
Pera Museum, Meşrutiyet Caddesi 65, İstanbul
aschoolofschools.iksv.org