Parsons School of Design
The Sound of Sweat
Cam Lindfors
Sustainable Systems
Jenifer Wightman
April 21, 2016
Mission Statement:
Due the outsourcing of clothing production to third world countries, many people are
unaware of the unsafe working conditions garment workers are faced with. The most wealthy
clothing companies, such as H&M and Forever 21, manufacture their products overseas at low
costs, which contribute to higher profits. Garment workers, including children, are subjected to
unethical standards including: low wages, dangerous work conditions and long hours. In 2013,
the Rana Plaza in Bangladesh collapsed due to the absence of basic workplace health and safety
standards, killing 1134 people. Rana Plaza served as Zara, Joe Fresh and H&M. My goal is to
inform and educate customers of the fast fashion companies that exploit worker’s rights. By
bringing attention to this issue, I will encourage customers to purchase from alternative retailers
that pay fair wages to their employees and sell products that are made in safe working
conditions. By promoting positive change by comparing safe vs. unsafe working environments
through a public interaction where people can learn about what it’s like to be an average
international garment worker, and make informed choices.
Ex. Summary:
This report and project are about the treatment of humans in developing countries
working in the fashion industry. In many developing countries around the world, workers are
forced to live and work in dangerous conditions that are bad for their personal health as well as
the environment. The workers often work six days a week, fourteen hours a day and paid
unlivable wages. I am raising awareness through my installation by immersing the public in a
simulation of what it is like in a fast fashion sweat shop. By placing people in my installation,
people get a glimpse into what it is like to be a sweatshop worker and hopefully change their
ways because of my installation
Cam Lindfors
Sustainable Systems
Jenifer Wightman
Final Project
The Sound of Sweat
Fast fashion and sweatshops are a relatively new problem that we have created for
ourselves. When Britain began its industrial revolution in the mid 1800’s powerful men reigned
over all of Great Britain. “They ruled over factories in which tens of thousands of workers
operated huge spinning machines and noisy power looms. They acquired cotton from the slave
plantations from the slave plantations of the America’s and sold the products of their mills to
markets in the most distant corners of the world. The cotton men debated the affairs of the world
with nonchalance, even though their occupations were almost banal-making and hawking cotton
thread and cloth. They owned noisy, crowded, and decidedly unrefined factories; they lived in
cities black with soot from coal-fueled steam engines; they breathed the stench of human sweat
and human waste. They ran an empire, but hardly seemed like emperors.” (Beckert) The
invention of the factory is a direct correlation to the sweat shop. Ironically the very first factory
was a sweatshop with terrible working conditions. The original British factories were very
similar to the ones that exist in China, India, Bangladesh, and many more developing countries.
The workers were extremely poorly overpaid. They were working up to fourteen hours a day, six
or seven days a week, everyday of their life. Children as young as five years old were working
these gruelling hours in factories that had no regulation, machinery that often killed them, and
had no clean air to breath. This caused not only an extreme mental strain on the children but
caused many to have serious health issues such as deformed limbs or respiratory problems for
the rest of their life. These issues were commonplace for all the workers in the factories and
affected everyone that was employed by them. Their livelihood was working for these factories,
as these were the only places that they could get jobs. Not only were these families working in
bad conditions but the were living in overcrowded and unsafe slums, potentially packing as
many as 8 people in a one or two bedroom flat.
Up until the nineteen fifties, the United States was still producing more than ninety
percent of their clothing on American soil. Fashion has been a prevalent and major industry in
the United States for quite some time now but for nearly fifty years it has been mass outsourced
to developing countries. Companies have expanded rapidly as the demand for fashion has gone
through the roof. Companies started looking for cheaper labor overseas so that they could turn
over large profits and grow their business and brands into mega corporations. The companies that
are leading the way are completely and utterly ruthless and will do nearly anything to make a
profit. In a manifesto written by Beckert, he calls these large cotton and clothing companies a
perfect example of “war capitalism.” He is not only being critical of them but trying to explain
the whole system of fast fashion and large corporate companies as vile and indisputably
disgusting. The whole system is completely askew. Not only are workers dying everyday due to
bad working conditions and being under paid but the environmental impact of the fashion
industry is outrageous. The fashion industry is the second most toxic and environmentally
harmful industry in the entire world. The large corporations could care less about the
environmental impact of their businesses, they are simple in it to make as much money as they
possible can and be rich. There’s no question that theses are some of if not the most greedy and
ruthless people on the planet. They disregard human life by forcing workers to work until they
basically die and then they turn that around and screw the planet over.
To further explain and stress the issues that these workers face here are some current
statistics about sweatshop workers. In Bangladesh, over three million citizens, eighty five
percent of whom are women, work in the garment industry. The average factory worker in
Bangladesh makes less than half of the living wage. This worker works, on average, six days a
week and they work fourteen to sixteen hours in a single day. A worker in Bangladesh earns
roughly three thousand Bangladeshi Taka a month, this is equal to thirty eight US Dollars. Since
nineteen ninety, more than four hundred workers have died and thousands have been severely
injured in fifty major factory fires. Many workers sleep inside these factories or rent rooms close
to their workplace. In developing countries, an estimated one hundred and sixty eight million
children ages five to fourteen are forced to work. A study showed that doubling the salary of
sweatshop workers would only increase the consumer cost of an item by one point eight percent,
while consumers would be willing to pay fifteen percent more to know a product did not come
from a sweatshop. “​Despite the rapid growth of the Chinese economy in the last decade, more
than 482 million people in China – 36% of the population – live on less than $2 a day. In total
85% of China’s poor live in rural areas and extreme poverty forces many of them to leave the
countryside in search of employment in urban areas. Often referred to as the factory of the world,
China’s industry-oriented economy relies on these migrant workers who make up the majority of
the workforce. There are approximately 150 million internal migrant workers in China who,
because of their status, do not receive any state benefits or protection. They have to endure poor
working conditions such as excessive and forced overtime, denial of social security rights and
failure to provide employment contracts, as well as severe health risks.” (war on want)
Fast fashion is a major problem on so many levels that it is hard to comprehend.
However, there are many people that are starting to stand up against fast fashion and these large
corporations that own the sweatshops and “labor camps.” There are thousands of people that
have had enough of the devastation that has been caused by it and are combatting and taking a
stand against it. Many organizations such as War on Want, Small Trades, Rev En Vert, and Della
are all speaking out against the major corporations. These organizations are raising awareness
through public campaigns and education about working conditions to bring an end to this
monstrosity. Organizations such as the ones listed above are also raising funds through
donations, taking trips to where the factories are, trying to get the local governments on board
and to get them to pass laws banning the factories, and much more. There are many clothing
brands that are fed up and have decided to produce ethically made clothing. Brands such as
Stella McCartney, Reformation, American Apparel, Storets, Zady, Arkins, and many more like
minded fashion companies. What these brands are doing are either making their clothes on
American soil or in the respective country but are paying fair living wages. They are
empowering workers and giving them a chance to be apart of the change. Many of these labels
are around the same cost as shops such as: Zara, H&M, Joe Fresh, and Nike. Not only are these
brands be conscious to the workers, but they are using recycled materials or are using minimal
toxins and not dumping toxic waste into the waterways. Brands such as these are causing lots of
uproar on both ends. The big companies are being exploited and people are starting to become
more aware of what’s happening behind the scenes. However, these same companies are doing
their best to fight back and are making claims that are not true whatsoever. Nearly all of these
companies have made strong claims that they are not polluting the environment and that they are
treating as well as paying their workers good, livable wages. Unfortunately this is not the case
for these companies as they are simply just smoke and mirrors.
Some of the most effective and most inspiring artworks to me have been installations and
sound exhibits. They are extremely effective in portraying a point and can dramatically change a
person's perspective depending on how the work is being presented. When you place someone in
an unfamiliar or new environment it starts to change the way they interact and the way that one
thinks. Sound are can give you great perspectives into worlds that may have been previously
unknown to the individual. For my final project I am building a three dimensional sound
installation that emulates a sweatshop. Firstly, I am going to record sounds similar to that in
which you would hear in a real life sweatshop. Such as a sewing machine, fabric being ripped or
cut, a person changing out their bobbin, distant clutter, etc… Then with simple two by fours I am
going to construct a five and a half foot by five and a half foot frame in the shape of a box.
Basically I am constructing a shell for out of wood with all four sides being opened and exposed.
By draping and folding dark fabrics and tarps over the frame I hope to create an environment that
is dark, tight, very loud and hot. I won’t be able to make the room smell because I have been
unsuccessful with other attempts to try and make it smell during practicing for this installation.
There are many ways in which my final product will address sustainability. First off it is
going to raise awareness of the crimes that the fashion industry is committing on others behalf.
People are completely unaware of the environmental impact of the fast fashion industry as well
as unaware of the conditions that the workers are working in. The first step in stopping this
industry is going to raise awareness and get people involved. By placing citizens in my
installation they can hopefully get a glimpse into the world of a sweatshop factory worker and
want to see it change. Making websites and brands to fight fast fashion are great but by
intervening with the public through an interactive artistic experience it will be more effective and
more personal to the individual. My solution improves the world by engaging the public
audience in raising awareness of the monstrosity that we call fast fashion. My solution is
sustainable because I am not only using recycled lumber, but can be easily torn apart and then
reconstructed and displayed in any kind of public space at any time. I hope that people become
outraged and offended and so upset with the experience in my installation that they change their
ways and combat fast fashion.
Appendix and Bibliography:
● Sevn Beckert, ​Empire of Cotton ​(New York: Vintage Books, 1896) 10.
● “Workers’ Rights,”​War on Want​, accessed April 19, 2016,
http://www.waronwant.org/workers-rights
Documentation:
Self Assessment:
My project was initially supposed to be a fun and interactive experience for the class to
enjoy. The people who participated did enjoy it and they were made uncomfortable (that was the
point) but I didn’t have any signs telling people to get inside of, therefore the amount of students
that participated was low. I used white muslin when I should have instead used a dark fabric
instead. I think this project if done on a larger scale and is more thought out, then yes it can be a
game changer for people supporting fast fashion. This definitely makes the planet more
sustainable if people take part in it, because they get a glimpse into the horrors of fast fashion
and can ignite a fire inside them to help end fast fashion because of it.