A Giant Factory and Working Life
Visiting an old factory representing the Industrial Revolution may give some insights into today’s working life.
By visiting an old iron and steel factory, I entered an area that I had never ventured into, either in my private life or in my career.
The large factories with their long chimneys and facilities that resemble parts of a giant machine, which I mostly see from a distance while driving on the highways, are quite foreign to me.
Völklingen Ironworks was recently retired after operating for almost 150 years in the same structure as when it was built in the Industrial Revolution.
The giant furnace at the height of the long building, which was working 7X24, swallowing tons of coal and iron ore, evaporating tons of water poured on them, bubbling and rattling, is now cold.
The train wagon, which creaked up the rails to reach the furnace’s mouth at the top, also came to rest. Rumor has it that the squeak of the train on the rails did not let the city’s residents sleep properly for many years.
The Industrial Revolution changed the work models in which people mostly worked for themselves and created a brand-new system in which mass production was carried out.
After watching the videos and looking at the photographs of the installation, prepared for visitors, the factory, which was entirely made of iron like its products, started to operate in my mind, with its huge pipes, channels, furnaces, and machines.
Many people who had never worked together in a specific closed area before the factory were trying to coordinate to feed the giant machines and keep things going.
I could imagine machines that could not tolerate the slightest mistake, production lines where even a second counted, and shift start-ends that were time-sensitive.
It was obvious that the employees were paying extreme attention to keeping this large and serious system under control. It was not an error-prone system.
The need for a labor force brought together many immigrants from different countries who spoke different languages in the same environment to work with these huge machines.
Their monochrome gray clothes, black hats and shoes, and the monotonous dressing and resting areas that served only their purpose were colorless and tasteless.
The inside of the building was dark due to the frosted small windows.
I realized the projections of the industrial period on us.
While visiting the factory, I felt that, at least at that time, the world was a place lived with stricter truths.
Although the majesty of the Industrial Revolution, which laid the foundation for the modern age we live in today, was left in the hands of technology, I came across the projections of the industrial era that started 150 years ago.
We want to work rhythmically and quickly as if we are trying to catch up with the production line, but when this does not happen, we may feel bad. Sometimes we force ourselves and each other to be perfect as if we were in a big error-sensitive system.
Although the changes, which were made in working conditions in two hundred years, offer better life opportunities in many areas in many countries, most of us, no matter what field we work in, wear ourselves out by trying to continue our lives and our work within the pattern of perfection.
Leaving the factory and coming back today
When I was leaving the factory, as a part of the installation, I saw the black-white photographs hung on the walls. I followed them and walked on the streets and tunnels that employees used on their way to their homes or to bars to unwind after their shifts.
At one point, when I looked up at the city, I realized that the city was also made up of blocks and intricate structures and it was like the continuation of the factory.
As I wandered the streets, I followed the traces of a lifestyle designed solely for working. There seemed no other possible lifestyle at those times at that place.
Even though we have so much discussion about work-life balance nowadays, most of us are still struggling for it despite new conditions.
“You can tell the truth more truthfully than with the truth itself.” Christian Boltanski, Völklingen Hütte (2023)
With the help of art pieces and installations in the factory, I felt the truth about the roots of the working life which have changed by the Industrial Revolution.
As I got into the car and drove away from this pile of iron buildings, the new modern iron and steel factory, that started operating after the old one was retired, appeared from afar.
There was a feeling of familiarity, even if it was from a distance.
On the way, I felt a strong desire to return to my home in nature, and I retained hope that we would find a balance between industry and nature, and between work and happy living.
