Tim Hunkin

Tim Hunkin is an engineer-turned-cartoonist who spends most of his time solving conventional engineering problems. “What is obvious to me now, is that even with the most sophisticated analysis, all engineering design remains an art,” he says.

At university, Hunkin was frustrated at not having the space to make things, so he started to draw. His cartoon The Rudiments of Wisdom, which he drew for a student newspaper, was picked up by The Observer and the newspaper became Hunkin’s platform for the next 14 years. The 600 cartoons were later published as an encyclopedia titled Almost Everything There is To Know. (A selection has just been republished)

The cartoons evolved into three much-acclaimed television series called The Secret Life of Machines in which Hunkin and Rex Garrod explained the workings of different household appliances by way of simple and more elaborate demonstrations and experiments.

Hunkin’s other work includes large-scale technical sculptures, theatre sets, props, museum exhibitions, giant clocks, as well as flying pigs and sheep that were used in Pink Floyd’s Animals tour.

It’s the fun of it all that keeps Hunkin going. “When I read about the stuffy, conceptual stuff that goes on in the fine art world, or the miniscule detail with which today’s fundamental science examines the world, I just think how lucky I am to be playing with technology.”