Anecdotes
including Table for One, Gone to the Dogs and Drop and Cover
the real-life design reader
Issue 2/6 – Table
In the second issue of Dirty Furniture, we peel back the veneer to reveal the table’s true substance.
Summer 2015
£11 + postage
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Food
Edible Economy
The ready meal offers the illusion of a balanced dinner at the touch of a button, but, as critic Tamar Shafrir discovers, its history is one of social and economic indigestion.
Politics
Power Positions
When it comes to taking a seat at the table, not all sides are created equal. Architecture and design critic Alexandra Lange considers an underexplored mechanism of control. Read article
Philosophy
The First and Future Table
Searching for a world beyond one defined by predictive algorithms and capital expenditure, philosopher Federico Campagna unearths the origins of the table to reveal a surprising escape hatch.
Interview
An Interrogator
‘Chairs and tables were bolted down for officer safety – they were seen as things that could be thrown down.’
Photoessay
The Dinner Party
In the 1970s, House & Garden magazine published a series on how celebrity gourmands entertained at home. Interiors photographer James Mortimer captured the era’s good tastes.
Games
War Before Dinner
The art of war is often rehearsed on the board before troops march to the battlefield. In his personal history of war gaming, novelist Will Wiles asks why so many of us want to be tabletop generals.
Futures
Shandong-Mingtai Medical Device Co., Ltd.’s OR2047x Operating Table®
– the last word in direct-to-site healthcare! By science fiction author Tim Maughan.
Film
A Pheasant Plucking
In cinema, the tabletop is the most dramatic location for an on-screen tryst. Writer Charmian Griffin watches the movies that know how to put on a good spread. Read article
Interview
A Poker Player
‘You want to be sitting to the left of the players that you want to control…’
Design
Joints
Though often disregarded, the joint is the core component of all building. Designer Jonathan Olivares finds in the table a celebration of this most basic unit.
Materials
16 Swatches
Imitation wood grain is a massive industry, yet the material hides in plain sight. Dirty Furniture’s Elizabeth Glickfeld samples a century of fake wood.
Art
What Art is Lacking
Exploring contemporary art’s fascination with the Ikea Lack table, critic Jonathan P Watts finds the world best-seller to be profoundly unstable.
Interview
A Finishing School Principal
‘There are always rules and you need to be aware of them so that you can blend in with the other people sitting at the table.’
Work
Working up a Sweat
We are used to the idea that office work enslaves the mind, but what effect has it had on our bodies? Designer Tobias Revell maps the desk’s evolution since the industrial revolution.
