The Art of Innovation

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The Art of Innovation: Humans in the Industrial Machine

Humans in the Industrial Machine

BBC Radio 4 - The Art of Innovation, Humans in the Industrial Machine

Ian Blatchford and Tilly Blyth on anxieties of production control in the industrial age

Sir Ian Blatchford and Dr Tilly Blyth focus on mechanisation of time depicted in LS Lowry's A Manufacturing Town and the anxieties of treating the human as a unit of production

Sir Ian Blatchford and Dr Tilly Blyth continue their series exploring how art and science have inspired each other, focussing on anxieties of production control in the industrial age.

LS Lowry’s A Manufacturing Town, along with his many other Lowryscapes, are famously ambiguous in his desire to put the Manchester industrial scene on the map. But the repetition, routine and the gaze of the factory clock is hard to escape.
 
Tilly examines an early 19th century attempt at production control – the Park Green silk mill clock, one of whose two clock dials dictated the worker’s working hours by being directly tied to the line shaft of the mill’s water wheel – offering relentless, structured repetitive control, much as Lowry’s painting reflects.

But rather than pressing workers from behind, could industrial efficiency be improved by easing difficulties which might confront them? Tilly examines the impact of early psychological recruitment tests that were gaining traction at the time Lowry began his famous Lowryscapes. The tests may have acknowledged that humans weren’t machines, but the ultimate goal was improved productivity.

Producer  Adrian Washbourne

Produced in partnership with The Science Museum Group

Photograph (C) The Science Museum Group

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Factual: Science & Nature: Science & Technology

How art and science have inspired each other.

Sir Ian Blatchford and Dr Tilly Blyth explore how art and science have inspired each other.

In this landmark series, art historian and Director of the Science Museum Ian Blatchford and technology historian and Head of Collections of the Science Museum Tilly Blyth explore the art of invention and the invention of art and reveal the symbiotic relationship between the two. Many feel science takes the magic out of creativity. These programmes show how scientific advance facilitates creativity. And further, how artistic and scientific endeavour are inspired by the same desires and, often, are the result of intimate conversations between good friends. Galileo's painter friend Ludovicio Cigoli paints a maculate moon on the ceiling of the Sistine chapel and what does Galileo see when he looks through his telescope? A maculate moon. The poet Samuel Coleridge and the chemist Humphrey Davy were very close friends. Scientific innovators are creative thinkers. And the creation of art is dependent on technological development, as well as an aesthetic sense. Throughout history, artists and scientists have both desired to make sense of the world around them and change it, 

Produced in partnership with The Science Museum Group. 

Image credit: Science Museum Group Collection © The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum.

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