Issue 09: Movement

This issue is devoted to the theme of Movement: whether it be found in timepieces, bicycles or boats – from the motion of the body to the mechanics of making.

The cover features Blink, a kinetic artwork by Jim Bond, one of the stars of our recent Marvellous Mechanica show for London Craft Week, alongside Martin Smith and Nik Ramage, who feature in a fascinating conversation inside the issue.

And, since this is the Movement Issue after all, we thought we’d better put ourselves about a bit. So we trek to Norway to meet one of the world’s best ski makers, Endre Hals, along with photographer Sølve Sundsbo. We hurtle across Switzerland in a day with Laurence Ellis as he snaps some of the world’s most renowned watchmakers in (painstakingly slow) action. And talking of painstakingly slow, we also take a journey at 3mph along the canals and riverways of Great Britain with Toby Glanville, examining lives that are lived – literally – away from the mainstream.

There are other movements that we celebrate in this issue, from the micro to the macro. We examine the current renaissance in furniture and cabinet making, and speak to some of the leading names in the field – including Christopher Howe, David Linley, Sebastian Cox, Gareth Neal, Sarah Kay and Sean Sutcliffe – as well as those who educate, commission and offer patronage to makers – to ask how we can raise interest to the next level, for the next generation.

What they all seem to point to is the fact that, in the rush for the cheapest and the fastest, we’ve left something far more important behind. But it doesn’t have to be lost forever – you just have to move in the right circles.

Elsewhere, we look at the science of making and the expertise behind everything from watches and boats to roller coasters. We embrace the spirit of slow driving as well as celebrating the mad dash by bicycle (in this case between stadium gigs on a European rock tour). We discover one man’s quest to solve the centuries-old problem of perpetual motion and explore our complex relationship with hunting birds – which has inspired the recent ‘hawk-lit’ phenomenon.

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