labor studies. eadweard muybridge (1830 – 1904) photographer

Labor studies

Eadweard Muybridge (1830 – 1904)


Photographer


Photographerof nature (Yosemite Park)


Photographerof nature (Yosemite Park)of war


Photographerof nature (Yosemite Park)of war of ethnic groups


Photographerof nature (Yosemite Park)of war of ethnic groups

Using photography to capture humans and animals in motion: series of cameras that are triggered by threads

Muybridge, Horse in motion

Étinenne-Jules Marey (1830 – 1904)

Physiologist

PhysiologistInvents chronophotograph to capture motion12 frames per second, recorded on same picture

Chronophotograph (1882)

Marey’s child movement studies

Marey’s chronophotography in action

Marcel Duchamp, Nude Descending A Staircase (1912)

Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856 – 1915)

entered Harvard

Almost entered Harvard

Almost entered Harvard, but instead apprenticed himself to Enterprise Hydraulic Works in Philadelphia

Almost entered Harvard, but instead apprenticed himself to Enterprise Hydraulic Works in Philadelphia

Sought to improve productivity in how workers use machines and tools: “the greatest prosperity can exist only […] when each man and each machine are turning out the largest possible output” (12).

Against rule-of-thumb method; experiment in order to economize all movements

Brick-laying: “Through all this minute study of the motions to be made by the bricklayer in laying bricks in standard conditions, Mr. Gilbreth has reduced his movements from eighteen motions per brick to five, and even in one case to as low as two motions per brick” (79) (Detailed in “Motion Study”)

Experiments in order to economize movementBrick-laying: “Through all this minute study of

the motions to be made by the bricklayer in laying bricks in standard conditions, Mr. Gilbreth has reduced his movements from eighteen motions per brick to five, and even in one case to as low as two motions per brick” (79) (Detailed in “Motion Study”)


Break down motions into parts; eliminate unnecessary motions

“After completing this series of experiments, therefore, each man’s work for each day was translated into foot-pounds of energy” (55)


Break down motions into parts; eliminate unnecessary motions

Conserving energy

Management implications:Division between manager (scientist) and

worker.

Pig iron: “The pig-iron handler stoops down, picks up a pig weighing about 92 pounds, walks for a few feet or yards and then drops it on to the ground or upon a pile. This work is so crude and elementary in its nature that the writer firmly believes that it would be possible to train an intelligent gorilla so as to become a more efficient pig-iron handler than any man can be.” (40).

solve: under-working (intentionally going too slowly can be tiring)

solve: under-working (intentionally going too slowly can be tiring) soldiering


Preserve:Division between management and worker


Preserve:Division between management and workerCommon prosperity

Henry Ford’s Model T assembly line

Vsevolod Meyerhold (1874 – 1940)

Theater of the first machine age


Theater of the first machine ageNew acting and movement: biomechanics


Theater of the first machine ageNew acting and movement: biomechanicsTaylorism for the stage

Meyerhold’s biomechanics

labor studies. eadweard muybridge (1830 – 1904) photographer

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