ten Bhomer, Marloes [Designer] and Toran, Noam [Artist] (2017) Beats Working. Studio ZZM. .

Abstract

For designers Noam Toran and Marloes ten Bhomer, a craft is not limited to a set of technical skills – craft also involves social, political and personal aspects, and these feature in pre-industrial work songs. Work songs are incredible, complex artefacts, in that they provide not only a historical ‘measure’ of the work being done –the human pace, the force, the duration of the task at hand– but also, through lyrics, convey the worker’s social and political condition. Work songs also speak of what workers desire: what they covet –freedom, the love of a good woman, material goods, etc.– and what they would rather be doing –dancing, drinking, and ‘drifting’ (traveling aimlessly). Most importantly, they provide a critical and personal voice to an often marginalised or misrepresented section of society. Traditionally, museological representations of craftspeople and labourers tend to be one-dimensional, in that they are habitually depicted as being only knowledgeable about the work or craft itself and not about the greater socio-political circumstances within which they function. Based on discussions with various artisans and museum staff, Noam Toran and Marloes ten Bhomer have created a contemporary labourers' song for the Zuiderzee Museum.

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