Commissioned by Somerset House in London in 2008, ‘The MacGuffin Library’ proposes a cinematic library of MacGuffins, a collection of 18 objects and accompanying film synopses.
Kular and Toran (RCA) focused on the ‘Macguffin’, a cinematic plot device, usually an object, that motivates a cinematic story. Their research examined the MacGuffin as a unique object typology, existing solely within the constraints of cinema, and defined in shape and function to achieve the singular purpose of driving a filmic narrative. The research proposed the foundations for a library of future MacGuffins. Kular and Toran first wrote a series of fictional film plots. These were inspired by a range of research interests, including Borges and Raymond Carver short stories, historical re-enactments, art forgeries, urban myths, the defining of high- and low-brow cinema, and counter-factual histories. The fictional film plots were then used to generate the MacGuffin object. The objects were drawn as 3D computer-aided models, which were then used to rapid-prototype the final MacGuffins.
The research highlighted and exemplified the conventional format of cinematic genres, as well as the varying ways cinematic genres are used as instruments of social critique.
The project was reviewed and exhibited extensively. Exhibitions included the Museum of Bat Yam, Israel; Saint-Étienne Design Biennale, France; Art Center, Los Angeles, USA; and Arnolfini, Bristol, UK. It was nominated for UK Designs of the Year at the Design Museum London, where it was shown in 2009. The work was also featured in Gareth Williams, 21 Twenty One, 21 Designers for Twenty-first Century Britain (V&A Publishing, 2012).