Anna Dumitriu | UK

Millpond

It is dangerous to remain on the factory floor for more than 15 minutes.

This piece was made at Masson Mill, in Cromford in Derbyshire England, it was the second mill built by Arkwright and still remains partly in working order as a museum. Sir Richard Arkwright was the central to the Industrial Revolution in England and built the first ever factory in the world at Cromford, Masson Mill being the second. The technology created by Arkwright allowed mechanization on a massive scale and put an end to cottage industries. The mills were built like fortresses as not only was Arkwright subject to the first attempts at industrial espionage but desperate spinners and weavers, whose livelihoods had been wrecked would attack the mills, it was not unknown for the factory guards to shoot at the peasants.

It marked the change from a rural to an industrialized society in the UK.

The sound on the video piece is a recording of the looms and Spinning Jennys in use and we are now told it is dangerous to remain on the factory floor for more than 15 minutes, due to the noise but factory workers (some as young as seven) would be in the room for twelve hours a day.

The piece is 16 minutes long.