The Workstation

A hand-operated sewing machine (still in working order), a typewriter (in need of repair), a first generaton laptop computer (obsolete technology), knitting needles (timeless tools)

At the Workstation there are tasks to be undertaken or completed. Some tools work, others are no longer fit for purpose: are they worth repairing, have they become museum pieces or merely more junk on the scrap heap of material history? Some tools and methods are timeless, others have long been replaced or superseded.

 

The Race between the Typewriter and the Sewing Machine, written by George Grosz and Walter Mehring, first performed at the Cabaret Voltaire in Zuerich in 1916, became a staple of DADA performance.

"For half an hour, Huelsenbeck pounded at a typewriter, filling up age after page, while Raoul Hausmann stitched away uninterruptedly at a circular band of mourning crepe. Herzfelde recalled: George Grosz was the emecee and referee. When he finally declared the sewing machine the victor, Huelsenbeck, the loser, smashed the typewriter against the floor of the stage. The victor, Raoul Hausmann, did not let himself be disturbed. He continued to stitch the endless mourning crepe with undiminished doggedness.'" (Jelavich 1996 :145)

The race continues - but is the sewing machine still winning?

Peter Jelavich, Berlin Cabaret, Harvard University Press 1996

Knitting needles are no doubt dangerous tools, used in back street abortions and as murder weapons; as potential tools of terror they have long been banned on aircrafts. In Mirabilia Domestica a vase filled with knitting needles of all colours, a bunch of empty flagpoles or petal-less flowers, are kept out of the visitors’ reach. Colourful knitting (?) needles made an unexpected graphic appearance in the BBC coverage of the 2010 General Election.