—Marks’ Standard Handbook for Mechanical Engineers

In 75 Watt, a product is designed especially to be made in China. The object’s only function is to choreograph a dance performed by the labourers manufacturing it.

The work seeks to explore the nature of mass-manufacturing products on various scales, from the geopolitical context of hyper-fragmented labour to the bio-political condition of the human body on the assembly line. Engineering logic has reduced the factory labourer to a human-machine through scientific management of every single movement. By shifting the purpose of the labourer’s actions from the efficient production of objects to the performance of choreographed acts, mechanical movement is reinterpreted into dance. What is the value of this artifact that only exists to support the performance of its own creation? And as the product dictates the movement, does it become the subject, rendering the worker the object?

The assembly/dance took place in Zhongshan between March 10–19, 2013 and resulted in 40 objects and a film documenting the choreography of their assembly.

Credits:
Choreography: Alexander Whitley

Film production: Siya Chen