MacGuffin #16: The Mirror

MacGuffin is an Amsterdam-based design and culture magazine about the life of ordinary things. Each issue takes a single object as its starting point and follows the unexpected stories, meanings and relationships that gather around it.

Issue 16: The Mirror turns its attention to reflection — literal, cultural and psychological. The issue moves through seasonal darkness and manipulated sunshine, facial recognition and fit checks, Claude glasses and mirror balls, fleeting reflections, idealised selfies and narcissistic echoes, asking what mirrors reveal when they are turned back on us.

Contributors include photographer Shahram Saadat, novelist Peter Delpeut, design educator Ghalia Elsrakbi, fashion researcher Aude Fellay, curator Fulvio Ferrari, architect Sam Jacob, designer Sabine Marcelis, visual artist Iriee Zamble and writer Kandace Siobhan Walker.