The Effect Of The Industrial Revolution On Modern Western Society

In my visual art piece I have attempted to illustrate how the industrial revolution was negative for modern western society. As the American academic Irving Babbitt once said "The industrial revolution has tended to produce everywhere great urban masses that seem to be increasingly careless of ethical standards". Although it is undeniable that the industrial revolution enabled significant improvements that lead to new inventions and technological advances, the cost at which they were achieved had serious repercussions on people during that period as well as for society today. To begin with, in my art piece you can see two figures at the bottom who seem to be carrying an incredible weight on their shoulders. As you can see they are carrying …show more content…
It has been discovered that the workers had to suffer through obscene working hours and poor wages. Apple is also notoriously known for its association with Foxconn, an international electronics manufacturing company. During 2010 there were 14 employees who committed suicide during their work . The causes of their suicides were linked to the working conditions they had to suffer through. Similarly in 2014 BBC reported on the poor conditions that Apple employees had to endure at their headquarters in China. A few representatives went undercover in a factory making parts for Apple computers. What they discovered was horrible, they had to work 18 days in a row despite requests for a day off. Moreover, another reporter, whose longest shift was 16 hours, said: "Every time I got back to the dormitories, I wouldn 't want to move."Even if I was hungry I wouldn 't want to get up to eat. I just wanted to lie down and rest. I was unable to sleep at night because of the stress." These haunting accounts are very similar to what factory workers had to go through during the industrial revolution; “We went to the mill at five in the morning. We worked until dinner time and then to nine or ten at night; on Saturday it could be till eleven and often till twelve at night. We were sent to clean the machinery on the Sunday, " this description is …show more content…
As you can see they are grey, without any distinct features. I did this to illustrates how the workers were regarded during the industrial revolution and even today. They were not regarded as human beings but rather as commodities therefore I drew the figure of a human being but without any of its actual features to illustrates the dehumanizing conditions that people had to and continue to bear. In addition, I also decided to color them grey to illustrate the loss of life people had. Working 16 hours a day does not permit someone to partake in life truly as they are over exhausted after their shifts. Therefore, the grey symbolize the loss of fervour workers had for life. Finally, I decided to color the background grey to illustrate the overall negative impact the industrial revolution has