Journal articles on the topic 'Singer Sewing Machine Company'

This study examines the Singer Sewing Machine Company’s strategies for selling family sewing machines on a global scale. In marketing the sewing machine, the American-headquartered Singer focused on ornamental embroidery or “fancy” sewing, defining home sewing as art, to distance the company and the appliance from negative perceptions of women’s garment work as industrial manufacturing. Singer created its Embroidery Department in the early 1890s in response to consumers’ sewing preferences. The department reflects how the home became a site where global capitalism was constructed and articulated. Singer’s Embroidery Department had representatives in many countries, coordinating expositions and other advertising. In the case of Singer in Spain and the United States, women who took part in the department’s work were an essential part of the corporate-integrated operation. This article examines the relationship between Singer’s corporate strategies and gender and culture in Spain and the United States.

Headquartered in the United States, the Singer Sewing Machine Co. did business all around the world in the early twentieth century. It regularly encountered wars, economic nationalism, and revolutions; in response, it normally created subsidiaries or gave in to expropriation. After the revolution in Mexico (1910–1920), Singer's marketing organization maintained normal operations and even prospered. The company succeeded, in part, by constantly associating the sewing machine with the idea of “modern” womanhood in Revolutionary Mexico. By revealing Singer's marketing strategies and focusing on gender, this article shows that multinational corporations and Latin American governments were not always at odds and could sometimes forge a profitable relationship.

Le rôle des entreprises et des organisations dans l’élaboration des tendances et des préférences esthétiques des consommateurs ne se limite pas à l’industrie de la beauté. L’histoire du Département artistique, une unité de la Singer Sewing Machine Company dont le personnel était majoritairement féminin, met en lumière le rôle crucial que jouent souvent les consommateurs et les marchés dans le design des produits. Créé dans les années 1870 aux débuts du développement de Singer, le Département artistique a élaboré diverses stratégies pour commercialiser les machines à coudre et inciter les particuliers et les ménages à les acheter. Les employées qui formaient la majorité du personnel de ce département créaient des modèles, concevaient de nouveaux produits et fournissaient des instructions sur l’utilisation des machines à coudre pour créer des broderies destinées à la décoration intérieure et à l’ornementation des vêtements. Ce faisant, les représentantes de vente, qui bien souvent n’étaient pas directement salariées de Singer, comblaient le fossé entre l’art, l’industrie et la domesticité et elles contribuèrent à positionner la multinationale comme un acteur clé dans les définitions culturelles et esthétiques de la beauté et de l’ornementation, qui furent à la fois globales et localisées. La beauté est donc « gérée », comme l’ont démontré les spécialistes de l’histoire des entreprises. Cependant l’attention portée à l’industrie cosmétique et à la marchandisation des soins corporels et de l’embellissement a laissé de côté d’importants espaces où la beauté est également définie et où les entreprises ont joué un rôle majeur. Cet article élargit l’analyse des entreprises de la beauté en explorant le rôle des entreprises et de leurs acteurs dans le façonnement des préférences esthétiques dans des domaines moins visibles de la maison, à savoir la décoration intérieure et la confection. Les stratégies de marketing mises en œuvre par la Singer Sewing Machine Company pendant plus de sept décennies visaient à répondre aux sensibilités esthétiques et aux attentes culturelles des consommateurs, au-delà des aspects fonctionnels et économiques de leurs machines à coudre, tels que la vitesse et l’utilité. Dans un premier temps, l’article retrace l’histoire du Département artistique et examine les sources disponibles pour l’étudier. Ensuite, en s’appuyant sur des exemples provenant du monde entier, l’article étudie les principales stratégies conçues et créées par le personnel de Singer. En conclusion, l’article offre une réflexion sur la gestion de la beauté comme industrie globale et son influence significative sur des aspects plus vastes de la vie quotidienne.

The opinions expressed in the press regarding education in this period have two directions: on the one hand, they criticize the scarcity and poor material conditions of schools, and on the other hand, they try to create an awareness that serves to transmit their own ideology but what about non-formal education? Parallel to this educational universe, non-regulated education is developed, outside legal limits and promoted by the most humanistic social agents within the context of charity. This article aims to show some practices of this teaching, such as music academies, popular libraries, night and Sunday schools for Catholic workers in the city of Elche and the Singer Company, under the gaze of historical sociology.

AbstractEveryday technologies of the nineteenth century—mass-produced items that were small, sturdy, and affordable—transformed the daily lives of working people in Asian colonies. There is already a large literature on colonial technology transfer and a specialist literature on the sewing-machine, which draws on Singer archives, production figures, sales techniques, and advertising to establish uptake by households from North America to the Philippines, India, China, and Egypt. Still, documentation of how and why imported objects such as the sewing-machine were appropriated is difficult to find because, unlike elites, ordinary people left few records of their own. Here a visual archive is investigated to complement existing studies. Photographs and early moving pictures from the former Dutch East Indies show that ordinary Indonesians sought and appropriated imported goods such as the sewing-machine. The colonial camera's visual record of sewing-machine operators displaces attention from the more impersonal trade and productivity statistics. It brings the silent user into the history of technological uptake and allows us to consider the repercussions across a wide social band and period. Indigenous tailors and seamstresses expanded their own work options. Through the Singer they fitted out and launched their compatriots into modern jobs and lifestyles in the Dutch colony. The sewing-machine changed habits, manners, and expectations; machine operators influenced senses of propriety, fashion, and status. Appropriation of mundane technology demonstrates that modernization was not only a process trickling down to the masses from Westernizing elites; it also bubbled up from below.

The sewing machine was one of the first standardized and mass-marketed complex consumer durables to have been diffused widely around the world before 1920. This global diffusion was almost the sole responsibility of one firm, Singer. Despite its American origins, Singer’s success lay principally overseas. New data provide insight into the company’s international marketing strategies. Although the firm had a reputation for marketing sophistication, Singer did not depend on price discrimination, extensive advertising, or loss-leading expansion of retail networks in its overseas markets. Rather, its success was due to the characteristics of consumer demand for sewing machines, features that combined with its strategic investments in market support services and in its selling organization to create Singer’s enormous competitive advantages in foreign markets.

The textile sector has become an indispensable part of the Turkish economy. The sewing machine is a long-lasting and easy-to-use tool widely used in the garment industry, which is a branch of the textile industry. The sewing machine is an indispensable production tool for the textile industry and sewing machine selection is a significant decision for the production performance of textile companies. Selecting an appropriate sewing machine increases production performance, while selecting an improper one reduces production performance. The sewing machine selection problem is a typical machine selection issue. Many criteria, such as cost, productivity, safety etc. are considered in the machine selection. Therefore, MCDM methods are applicable to solve the machine selection problem. This study develops an integrated grey MCDM model including Grey AHP and ROV-G to select the most appropriate sewing machine for an apparel textile company.

The blindstitch sewing machine are used for different sewing operations: hemming and felling operations, beltloop manufacturing, padding, spot tacking, blind stitching of double side/face seams. The web-sites of sewing equipment producers were analyzed to see the availability of blindstitch sewing machines in the world's market. 68 manufacturers from 143 researched companies produce one or more types of blindstitch sewing machines. The blindstitch machines of stitch 103 are manufactured the most often. The machines of stitch class 300 are developed for specific applications manufacturing men suits. The companies Strobel and Maier are most well known blindstitch machine manufacturers. The company Strobel has widest offer of class 300 blindstith machines. The company Maier produces sewing machines for industrially manufactured and tailored clothing, as well as, for manufacturing home and technical textile goods.

This paper presents the findings of the study of building and completion of a standard database on the operation process and sewing time for 02 typical products from knitted fabrics, namely Polo-Shirt and TShirt. The study process is carried out based on applying MTM (Methods Time measurement) standard time analysis method and predetermined time system GSD (General Sewing Data). In this research, we have inherited the results from previous studies including Classifying the main parts sewing linkages, formulated sewing technology process and theoretical analysis of the process of manipulating sewing of the main parts, linkages of the 02 classical textile products including Polo-Shirt and T-Shirt by MTM standard time analysis method and GSD predetermined time system; The studies work of the group of authors on the experimental research content determines the simultaneous influence of a group of factors: distance to place the sewing element (cm), the rotation angle of the sewing element (˚), the size of the sewing element, the number of element layers involved in the sewing, the light intensity (lux) and the skills of sewing workers (grade worker) to the sewing time of knitting products and research simultaneous influences of a group of technological factors including: seam length (cm) and stitches per centimeter (stitches/cm), experiment on 4 sewing devices such as 1-needle lockstitch machine, overlock machine (1 needle and 3 threads) and (2 needles and 4 threads), coverstitch machine (2 needles and 3 threads); and with 3 kinds of single jersey fabrics, which are thin, medium, and thick fabrics to sewing time on the machine of Polo-Shirt and T-Shirt products. The above research results show that there is a big difference between the actual values and theoretically calculated values according to MTM method, GSD predetermined time system, the authors have determined a set of adjustment coefficients for the former and the latter for two values of sewing preparation operation time and sewing time on the machine. We have tested the above research results in 03 enterprises: Hanoi Star Fashion Co., Ltd., Tinh Loi Garment Company and Ha Nam Hanosimex Company Limited and received a lot of practical comments from businesses.

Abstract The aim of this study is to minimize maintenance costs using preventive and breakdown maintenance methods for the Singer 14SH754 sewing machine at CV FSI during the 2022 period. This research adopts a case study approach with a quantitative descriptive method. Data collection techniques include interviews, observations, and documentation. The research findings reveal that the calculations of MTBF, MTTR, and MTTF on the system indicate that the system has a relatively good level of reliability with MTBF of 24 days, MTTR of 5 days, and MTTF of 19 days. On the other hand, the maintenance policy for the Singer 14SH754 Sewing Machine by CV FSI utilizes preventive and breakdown maintenance methods, but the implementation is not according to schedule. With the preventive method, a reevaluation of the maintenance interval is conducted to be 12 months, resulting in a more efficient total expenditure of Rp 243,430. In contrast, the breakdown maintenance method incurs an expenditure of Rp 1,910,180 per period, demonstrating that this method is more efficient in minimizing the maintenance costs of the circular knitting machine at CV FSI by 24.7%. As a recommendation, CV FSI should adjust the maintenance schedule according to the calculation results to enhance system efficiency and reliability. Abstrak. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah meminimumkan biaya pemeliharaan menggunakan metode preventive dan breakdown maintenance mesin jahit singer 14SH754 di CV FSI periode tahun 2022. Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan studi kasus dengan metode deskriptif kuantitatif. Teknik pengumpulan data yang digunakan berupa wawancara, observasi dan dokumentasi. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa Hasil perhitungan MTBF, MTTR, dan MTTF pada sistem menunjukkan bahwa sistem memiliki tingkat keandalan yang cukup baik dengan MTBF 24 hari, MTTR 5 hari, dan MTTF 19 hari. Pada sisi lain, kebijakan pemeliharaan Mesin Jahit Singer 14SH754 oleh CV FSI menggunakan metode preventive dan breakdown maintenance, namun pelaksanaannya belum sesuai jadwal. Dengan metode preventive, dilakukan perhitungan ulang interval waktu pemeliharaan menjadi 12 bulan, menghasilkan total pengeluaran lebih efisien sebesar Rp 243.430. Sebaliknya, metode breakdown maintenance memiliki pengeluaran per periode sebesar Rp 1.910.180, menunjukkan bahwa penggunaan metode ini lebih efisien dalam meminimalkan biaya pemeliharaan mesin rajut bundar di CV FSI sebesar 24,7%. Sebagai rekomendasi, CV FSI sebaiknya menyesuaikan jadwal pemeliharaan sesuai hasil perhitungan untuk meningkatkan efisiensi dan keandalan sistem.

This article explains the process of the chair design for the tailor with the case study of the tailors in the convection company that uses the Brother brand sewing machine with certain specifications. Research begins with interviews to know the complaints and needs of the tailor will be a means of chair work and also to get the way out so that tailor complaints can be reduced. In addition to interviews, also observations and measurements of the seats that are being used by the company as a comparator, collecting the sewing machine data used, conducting quotation position test to determine the tendency to sit the tailors. In addition, to obtain the main components, design, and dimensions of the Chair are also working observations and measurements anthropometry the tailors. From the analysis of the data that resulted in the design of the chair, then made a prototype that is expected to suit the needs of tailor in the convection company.

This research was conducted to enhance the productivity of the targeted sewing line at the ABC textile company. The existing SAMs, the capacity of the sewing line for various operations, and several required machines were collected. Moreover, the obtained figures were observed and analyzed by using time study and motion study, and certain improvements were made at the sewing line. Results indicated that SAMs for operations A and B were minimized by -13.64% and -14.54% respectively; whereas, SAM for operation C was increased by 16.67%. Machine requirement for operation C was increased by 100%; moreover, the capacity for operations A, B, and C was increased by 12%, 12.69%, and 40% respectively. When it is to production activities, the little improvements play a significant role in boosting the productivity of the production system. Optimal allocation of human resources, machines, and time are the benefits of line balancing. This can be made possible with the application of the line-balancing framework. With every passing day, the nature and type of article vary at the sewing line thus it is highly needed for the company to get the model developed for an automated line balancing application. Moreover, this work can be extended by the development of a line-balancing framework considering the nature of production.

The article describes a computer-aided manufacturing of compression garments used for rehabilitation of burn and post-operative scars implemented in Tricomed S.A company. Steps of manufacturing processes include 3D scanning, obtaining control parameters for a self-generating CAD templates from STL file, conversion control parameters depending on the degree of compression and type of knitwear, generating DXF files for the cutting machine, sewing.

Abstract. PT. XYZ is a company that produces plastic sacks and warings for local and foreign consumers (exports). This research was conducted at the Finishing Department, which carries out the process of cutting sack rolls into packaged products. There are three series of production processes, namely cutting, sewing, and packing. The process of cutting and sewing is done with the MOJ machine, namely MOJ-1, MOJ-2, and MOJ-3. The MOJ-3 engine is the engine that has the highest downtime, which is 409,68 hours. The downtime of the MOJ-3 machine caused the production process to stop because the sacks produced on the MOJ-3 machine could not be transferred to another machine. This research aims to impelement planned maintenance with determine the maintenance intervals to increase machine reliability. Maintenance intervals are specified for conveyor clip components, knife supports, and sewing loopers. The maintenance interval for clip conveyor components is 90 hours, knife support is 72 hours, and the sewing looper is 105 hours. The downtime of the clip conveyor component can be reduced to 19,41 hours, the knife support component to 8,55 hours, and the sewing looper component to 6,17 hours. The calculation results show that joint maintenance with a time interval of 105 hours can reduce the total maintenance cost from Rp207.963.924 (currently) to Rp91.808.815 (proposed). Abstrak. PT. XYZ merupakan perusahaan yang memproduksi karung plastik dan waring kepada distributor lokal dan konsumen luar negeri (ekspor). Penelitian ini dilakukan di Departemen Finishing yang melakukan proses pemotongan gulungan karung hingga menjadi produk yang telah dikemas. Terdapat tiga rangkaian proses produksi, yaitu pemotongan, penjahitan, dan pengepakan. Proses pemotongan dan penjahitan dilakukan dengan mesin MOJ, yaitu MOJ-1, MOJ-2 dan MOJ-3. Mesin MOJ-3 merupakan mesin yang memiliki downtime tertinggi, yaitu 409,68 jam. Downtime mesin MOJ-3 mengakibatkan proses produksi terhenti, karena karung yang diproduksi pada mesin MOJ-3 tidak dapat dipindahkan ke mesin lainnya. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menerapkan planned maintenance dengan menentukan interval pemeliharaan agar dapat meningkatkan keandalan mesin. Interval pemeliharaan ditentukan untuk tiga komponen kritis mesin MOJ-3, yaitu clip conveyor, penyangga pisau, dan looper jahit. Hasil perhitungan menunjukkan bahwa interval pemeliharaan komponen clip conveyor sebesar 90 jam, penyangga pisau sebesar 72 jam, dan looper jahit sebesar 105 jam. Dengan interval pemeliharaan yang dihasilkan, downtime komponen clip conveyor dapat direduksi menjadi 19,41 jam, komponen penyangga pisau menjadi 8,55 jam, dan komponen looper jahit menjadi 6,17 jam. Hasil perhitungan menunjukkan bahwa pemeliharaan bersama dengan interval waktu 105 jam mampu menurunkan total biaya pemeliharaan dari Rp207.963.924 (saat ini) menjadi Rp91.808.815 (usulan).

Fashion magazines contain hidden delights ripe for investigating. One can explore overt content and covert messages in fashion magazine advertising art by probing the periodical and its promotional images for historical or social clues and for the advertiser's manipulative methods. Art librarians can apply and encourage the use of analytical techniques in connection with fashion advertising art from any era or region of the world. The focus here is on a single firm, the Demorest Fashion and Sewing-Machine Company, best known for its paper sewing patterns, and how in a single volume of its monthly magazine it promoted the purchase of fashion goods in connection with a world's fair: the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. Comparing a 19th-century fashion engraving with a related photograph; and viewing a magazine advertisement as a set of repeating patterns according to a 21st-century process, fractal-concept analysis, together yield a trove of information and prompt further ideas for alternate and peripheral lines of inquiry.

In early 1968, two development sites lay virtually side by side in Lower Downtown Manhattan. West of Broadway, the clearing of thirty blocks spectacularly announced the Port Authority's intention to build a World Trade Center (WTC) complex. Along Broadway itself, a more modest, two-block site awaited the U.S. Steel Building, later renamed 1 Liberty Plaza. The northern half of this site, bounded by Cortland and Liberty Streets, block 62, had most recently been the address of the Singer Tower, an Ernest Flagg-designed building that, in the eighteen months after its completion in 1908, had been the tallest building in the world. In 1967, it once again attained record status, which it, in fact, retains: the tallest building in the world to be intentionally demolished by its owners.This essay resides in the cultural moment represented by these two sites, these two locations of erasures and reinscription. Instead of looking at what would be built — the intensely analyzed WTC site — let us examine what had been erased next door: a particular aesthetic, an earlier form of corporate capitalism massed in the outline of a grand cityscape. Produced by the burgeoning, international sewing-machine trade in the early 20th century and brought down by the pressures of the international, industrial competition of the 1960s, the life of the Singer Tower takes New York City from the exuberance of the first decade of the century to the decline of city fortunes at the end of American industrial dominance. Its demise is also the result of cultural triage performed by historic preservationists in the years immediately after the passage of New York City's Landmark legislation in 1965.

The purpose of this research is to analyze the method used in calculating production cost and selling price of bag type 3673 on Tas Tajur PT SKI Bogor and also to compare the method used with full costing and variable costing method. This study used descriptive method and used primary and secondary data. The finding of research can be concluded that calculation of bag production cost type 3673 using company method, full costing, and variable costing each equal to Rp66.700, Rp69.830, and Rp68.700. While for the selling price of type 3673 bag using company method, full costing, and variable costing of Rp199,900, Rp209,490 and Rp206,100 respectively. The difference in bag manufacturing cost calculation lies in the factory overhead cost consisting of the cost of depreciation of the factory sewing machine, the cost of factory table depreciation, the cost of factory maintenance and the cost of factory utility.

Abstract—Yarico Collection Trad. Co. is a company engaged in clothing convection for the last 12 years. One of the problems faced by this company is the number of defective products that exceed the defect tolerance limits set by the company. The company sets a defect limit of 1% of the total production, while in the field the number of defects is 3%. This study aims to find out the priorities of the causes of disability and find out how to reduce the number of defects related to women's Muslim clothing that occur in the cutting process of 20 units from 1250 units, the process of sewing or unifying clothes by 22 units out of 1250 units, the process of closing down 19 units out of 1250 unit, and the pressing process is 14 units out of 1250 units. The researcher used the Failure Mode Effects Analysis (FMEA) method to obtain the most dominant failure mode of production process, the calculation of Risk Priority Number (RPN) generated in the pressing process with RPN 504 value, sewing process with RPN 448 value, the process of stitching stitches with RPN value 392, and the cutting process with the RPN value 384. From the results of the study obtained several proposals according to the highest RPN value to reduce the number of product defects, including: for cutting defects by adding lighting and periodic machine maintenance, for sewing defects scheduled and the use of components that are standard, for defects in obras are made machine maintenance scheduling, the use of spare parts that are standardized, and using a strongbranded needle, for defects in the pressing process by doing good engine maintenance and providing training to workers with use temperature machine according to the type of fabric. Keywords ; product defect, quality improvement, FMEA, RPN Abstrak— PD. Yarico Collection merupakan perusahaan yang bergerak dalam bidang konveksi pakaian selama 12 tahun terakhir. Salah satu permasalahan yang dihadapi oleh perusahaan ini yaitu jumlah produk cacat yang melebihi batas tolerasi cacat yang di tetapkan oleh perusahaan. Perusahaan menetapkan batas cacat yaitu 1 % dari jumlah peroduksi sedangkan dilapangan jumlah cacat sebesar 3 %. Penelitian bertujuan untuk mengatehaui prioritas penyebab cacat dan mengetahui bagaimana cara menurunkan jumlah cacat terkait baju muslim wanita yang terjadi pada proses cutting sebesar 20 unit dari 1250 unit, proses penjahitan atau penyatuan baju sebesar 22 unit dari 1250 unit, proses obras sebesar 19 unit dari 1250 unit, dan pada proses pressing sebesar 14 unit dari 1250 unit. Peneliti menggunakan metode Failure Modes Efect Analysis (FMEA) sehingga didapat mode kegagalan paling dominan diproses produksi, hasil perhitungan Risk Priority Number (RPN) yang dihasilkan pada proses pressing dengan nilai RPN 504, proses penjahitan dengan nilai RPN 448, proses obras jahitan dengan nilai RPN 392, dan pada proses cutting dengan nilai RPN 384. Dari hasil penelitian didapat beberapa usulan sesuai nilai RPN tertinggi untuk menurunkan jumlah cacat produk, diantaranya : untuk cacat cutting dengan melakukan penambahan penerangan serta melakukan perawatan mesin secara berkala, untuk cacat penjahitan melakukan perawatan mesin secara terjadwal serta penggunaan komponen yang sesuai standard, untuk cacat pada obras dibuat penjadwalan perawatan mesin, penggunaan spare part yang sesuai standar, dan menggunakan jarum obras yeng berbahan kuat, untuk cacat pada proses pressing dengan melakukan perawatan mesin yang baik serta memberika pelatihan kepada pekerja dengan penggunaan suhu mesin sesuai jenis kain.Kata Kunci : Cacat Produk, Quality Improvement, FMEA, RPNa

Briquettes are solids that are produced through the process of compression and pressure application and if burned will produce a small amount of smoke. Briquette production is carried out using a hammer mill where the raw material for briquettes is charcoal which is then crushed into charcoal granules. The packaging process is still done manually using a shovel to fill the 50kg sack and then take it to the sewing machine. The worker's posture when using a shovel has a Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) score of 12 so it has a high work risk of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) and requires immediate improvement. The working environment at the company produces pollutants, meaning that there is no capture container for the fall of charcoal grains from the hammer mill. Based on the existing problems, a redesign of the existing machine is needed. The proposed machine was designed using the Reverse Engineering method because the existing condition already uses the machine then the existing machine is decomposed to find out the components and functions of the existing machine to find alternative concepts. The ergonomic approach uses REBA and LBA to determine changes in worker posture and the forces acting in the human spine. The DEM approach was chosen to find out if the charcoal grains dropped from the hammer mill were successfully captured and to find out the flow of the charcoal grains. The results of the proposed machine design have a good impact on workers in the packaging process.

Cellular manufacturing systems (CMS) are a major application of group technology, that brings benefits related to the reduction of wastes, also known as ‘mudas’ in lean manufacturing philosophy, to organisations striving to compete on today’s markets. These benefits include the reduction of machine setup times, material handling and work-in-process inventory, among others. However, many organisations are reluctant to implement such decisions in their production systems, due to the uncertainty and economic and productive impact that these involve. For this reason, a simulation study is performed in this paper to evaluate the performance of a cellular manufacturing system approach for the sewing department of a sportswear manufacturing company. The simulation study was designed, and the results of the proposed model showed improvements of 51,46% in the average flow time, 1102,52% in the average throughput, and 50,65% in the average setup times of machines, compared to the current state of the case study.

Stress has become a major concern of modern times as it can cause harm to employee’s health and performance. Mental health is a fundamental constituent of occupational health. Scientific studies on psychological occupational health in the textile industry are relatively rare in Tunisia. This study seeks to estimate the rate of occupational stress, reveal associated factors and design strategies and ways to improve the work situations in a clothing company in the Monastir region. We performed a transversal study among female sewing machine operators. For the evaluation of professional stress, we used the Karesek questionnaire, a validated self-administered questionnaire. To carry out the descriptive analyses, we estimated frequencies and odds ratios (ORs). To explore associations linking organizational and socio-demographic variables and stress, we calculated adjusted ORs using a logistic regression model. As a result, the present study pointed out a strong degree of stress among operators: 30% of study participants reported that they were suffering from stress according to the Karasek stress scale. Our study revealed a statistically relevant correlation between stress and age, work experience, perceived non-adaptation of the task, and a poor perception of the organization. Stress is related to multiple socio-professional determinants. Most operators needed ergonomic interventions and prevention and risk management recommendations. Evaluation of the width of psychosocial risk factors at the workplace enables preventive strategies to preserve operators' mental health.

PT “X” is a company engaged in the garment industry. The company is facing problems that inhibit the production process. These problems comprise an excess of product defects beyond the specified limits, a considerable rate of product returns, delays in product shipment, and disorderly arrangements in storing raw material. This study aims to determine the root causes of problems in the PT “X” and provide recommendations for improvement using the concept of lean six sigma. The waste assessment model is used to identify the dominant waste, while the value stream analysis tools is a method used to analyze the causes of the dominant waste. From the research results, four dominant wastes are identified, namely waste defects, unnecessary inventory, waiting and unnecessary motion, with percentages of 27.02%, 15.92%, 14.32% and 14.0% respectively. The results of the analysis using mapping tools show the details of waste in each dominant waste. Proposed recommendations for improvement are made using the failure mode and effect analysis based on the highest risk priority number for each dominant waste. The recommendations proposed by the researchers include implementing a standard operating procedure and work instruction for the sewing process; scheduling machine maintenance using reliability centered maintenance II; planning and scheduling materials using material requirement planning; implementing line balancing; and designing name tags, visual displays, and storage rack layout.

Abstract. CV. X is a company engaged in the leather industry that manufactures wallets, bags and key chains. The company experienced a decrease in sales volume due to a decrease in product quality from defective products in the company. Leather bags have an average percentage of disability of 2.39% in 2017-2018 from the company's disability limit of 2%. The existence of these defective products requires companies to improve product quality to reduce the occurrence of defects. The method used to solve the problems that are being faced by the company is the Seven Tools Quality Control method to identify the causes of product defects, while the Rezhenija Izobretatelskih Zadach (TRIZ) method is used to design a product quality improvement plan. The result of data processing which becomes the main priority is defect cutting. The causes of cutting defects include decreased work concentration, inadequate workers, poor physical condition, no machine maintenance, blunt cutting machines, high cutting machine use intensity, work environment, hot room temperature, lack of work space lighting. All causes of product defects are designed to improve the quality of leather bag products by creating visual controls, forms for worker health, cutting knife replacement machines, installing air conditioners, and adding lights to the sewing machine. Abstrak. CV. X merupakan perusahaan yang bergerak di bidang industri kulit yang memproduksi dompet, tas, dan gantungan kunci. Perusahaan mengalami penurunan volume penjualan yang disebabkan karena adanya penurunan kualitas produk dari produk cacat di perusahaan. Tas kulit memiliki rata-rata persentase kecacatan sebesar 2,39% pada tahun 2017-2018 dari batas kecatatan yang ditetapkan perusahaan sebesar 2%. Adanya produk cacat tersebut mengharuskan perusahaan melakukan perbaikan kualitas produk untuk mengurangi terjadinya kecacatan. Metode yang digunakan untuk menyelesaikan permasalahan yang sedang dihadapi oleh perusahaan yaitu metode Seven Tools Quality Control untuk mengidentifikasi penyebab terjadinya kecacatan produk, sedangkan metode Teorija Rezhenija Izobretatelskih Zadach (TRIZ) digunakan untuk membuat rancangan perbaikan kualitas produk. Hasil pengolahan data yang menjadi prioritas utama yaitu cacat potong. Penyebab cacat potong diantaranya yaitu konsentrasi kerja menurun, pekerja kurang hati-hati kondisi fisik kurang baik, tidak ada perawatan mesin, mesin potong tumpul, intesitas penggunaan mesin potong tinggi, lingkungan kerja, suhu ruangan panas, pencahayaan ruang kerja kurang. Semua penyebab cacat produk dibuat rancangan perbaikan untuk meningkatkan kembali kualitas produk tas kulit dengan membuat visual control, form untuk kesehatan pekerja, mesin penggantian pisau potong, pemasangan AC, serta penambahan lampu pada meisn jahit.

The feeding stage of sport shoe-upper for automatic screen printing machine for printing press-segments on shoe-upper exists the following issues: Firstly, the locating shoe-uppers on the conveyor of screen printing machine is made by hand and based on the experience of workers. So, this reduces productivity and increases the cost of the product. Secondly, there are deviations of the press-segments on shoeupper after printing (the current deviation is ± 1 mm). So, these are affected to the next stage of sewing contour lines on the shoe-upper. Currently, the shoe manufacturing company in Vietnam wish solve these problems, but so far, in addition to resolve manually there is no feasible method has been given. In this paper, a precise position control of shoe-upper for screen printing machine using image processing techniques is introduced. A camera is used to capture the image of shoeupper. The binary image of shoe-upper is used for image processing to recognize the position errors in directions of X, Y and θ coordinates. A new algorithm to calculate the position errors of shoeupper is proposed in this paper. The shoe-upper is locating on X - Y - θ tables which can move X, Y directions and rotating angle. These tables are controlled by three servo motors. The mission of X - Y - θ tables are adjustable positioning accuracy of the shoes-upper by comparing the current position with its standard position that has been previously stored in the computer. The effectiveness of the calculation algorithm of shoeupper errors and the high accuracy of image processing and mechanical system are proven through experimental results

Abstract What can the brain–computer interface (BCI) do? Wearing an electroencephalogram (EEG) headcap, you can control the flight of a drone in the laboratory by your thought; with electrodes inserted inside the brain, paralytic patients can drink by controlling a robotic arm with thinking. Both invasive and non-invasive BCI try to connect human brains to machines. In the past several decades, BCI technology has continued to develop, making science fiction into reality and laboratory inventions into indispensable gadgets. In July 2019, Neuralink, a company founded by Elon Musk, proposed a sewing machine-like device that can dig holes in the skull and implant 3072 electrodes onto the cortex, promising more accurate reading of what you are thinking, although many serious scientists consider the claim misleading to the public. Recently, National Science Review (NSR) interviewed Professor Bin He, the department head of Biomedical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, and a leading scientist in the non-invasive-BCI field. His team developed new methods for non-invasive BCI to control drones by thoughts. In 2019, Bin’s team demonstrated the control of a robotic arm to follow a continuously randomly moving target on the screen. In this interview, Bin He recounted the history of BCI, as well as the opportunities and challenges of non-invasive BCI.

CV. Rama Raiders was a home industry engaged in the fashion sector. The business had seven main stages of the production process: selecting materials, making patterns, cutting techniques, sewing processes, gluing processes, finishing/quality control, and packaging in carrying out production activities to achieve the desired quality CV. Rama Raiders still faces several obstacles, one of which is the presence of defective products produced, which causes product quality to decline. This research aims to identify the factors that cause sandals defects in CV. Rama Raiders. The methodology used the Seven tools and FMEA methods to determine the process of controlling leather sandal product defects using qualitative data. Corrective action plans used the 5W+1H concept to address each root cause of the problems. The results were that the most dominant type of defect in leather sandals was a type of glue defect that was not neat. The appearance was because of human and machine factors that didn't work optimally, tools that didn't support it, materials that didn't fit, inadequate environment, and no standard operating procedures. The improvements made by changing the glue, adding a brush, and making SOP improved the quality. From this research, the methods help reduce the problem of product defects experienced by the company

Abstract Over the last 20 years there has been a dramatic technical development of machines and software in the production of knitted fashion garments. This development has made it possible to rationalise design and production of knitted garments so that today it is possible to make a knitted garment, almost ready made, directly in the knitting machine, with a minimum of processes, such as cutting and sewing. The objective of this paper is to explain and give examples of how this new knitting production technology could be implemented in a fast fashion logistic system. The method for this paper is an inductive approach based on a literature survey. The new technical achievements have not meant the great breakthrough that was expected. Why? Many companies moved their production to development countries where the costs ofproduction, mainly labour costs are lower than in western countries. Another reason is that it is not enough to invest in new machinery and then use the machines in the same production system as before. To gain the benefits of this technique the production processes in the company have to be changed and adapted to these new conditions. The lack of knowledge in supply chain design and a one-sided perspective on production costs, instead of a customer orientated one, is one explanation. This, in a business (fashion) where the demand is changing dayby- day and the short time to market is vital to a company’s ability to be competitive. This article describes the integral and complete garment knitting techniques and the advantages that they open up, both from a logistics and a technical point of view. An integral knitted whole garment technology, implemented and adjusted to the production and business system in a company, can reduce lead times dramatically and respond quickly to the rapidly changing fashion market.

Quality control is intended to ensure that the products are in accordance with the predefined standards. PT. XYZ is a garment company that manufactures products with global target market. Hence, product quality assurance becomes an important issue for PT. XYZ. This research focuses on the Just Brand-MCJA216142 jacket product at the sewing work station on line-4 of PT. XYZ. Preliminary observations show that the number of reworked-products was experiencing an increasing trend. This study aims to determine whether the company has carried out quality control properly. Specifically, the research objectives are to identify the type and level of product defects, identify the factors causing product defects, and provide proper improvement suggestions to reduce the occurrence of product defects. This study applied DMAIC (Define–Measure–Analyze–Improve–Control) Six Sigma concept. The results showed that the quality of the Just Brand-MCJA216142 jacket product has exceeded the Indonesian industry average and is classified as the USA industry average. However, quality improvement is still needed since the products are targeted for the export market. Based on Pareto diagram at the Analyze stage, it was found that the most dominant defects occurred in the Just Brand-MCJA216142 jacket production process were broken threads and puckering. The frequency of occurrence for these two types of defect reaches 23% of the total 16 types of defects. The defects were caused by human, machine, material, method, and environmental factors. Recommendations for improvement at the Improve stage are based on root cause analysis of each causative factor that is identified using a fishbone diagram. This research results strengthen the previous related researches regarding the effectivity of DMAIC Six Sigma for analyzing quality control of products.

Marcus Powell was a secretive man blessed with genuine curiosity. Myths abound concerning him, many of which cannot be verified given the long interval since his death, and a problem for his biographer is to separate myth from reality. Maybe it is a mistake to try because its mere existence provides insight into the person he was. He was an observer of life and a sympathetic and amusing commentator on it, and he wrote unusually well. What of his personal writing remains reflects his sense of humour and his humanity, and quotations from it are provided without further attribution throughout this memoir. He was not a tall man (5 ft 2 in; 1.57 m) and ‘when he went to Oxford he was unimaginatively called Tiny. This stuck and was used within the University and in the scientific world. Marcus, the name he liked, was kept for the few.’ Where any confusion might arise we shall presume to use this name. Those who knew him outside his laboratory have only the fondest memories of him, but some academic colleagues occasionally found him difficult.He was born in Coventry, the youngest child of Henrietta and William Herbert Powell, to whom a daughter, Christina, had been born two years earlier. William was born in Kidderminster. His profession was given on Marcus's birth certificate as a bicycle machinist. It was printed by use of a rubber stamp, which reflected the prevalence of the industry in Coventry at that time, bicycle manufacture having superseded the sewing machine industry to the extent that in 1906 a single company produced 75 000 bicycles.William and Henrietta had married in Calne, Wiltshire, in August 1902. William was the sixth of eight children born to Charles and Eliza Powell, who registered a cross on the birth certificate. Charles was variously described as a gamekeeper and a farm labourer, and he died at the age of forty–seven, leaving his wife to bring up the seven children still at home, ranging in age from two months to twenty–one years. Eliza became a dressmaker, and the two elder remaining children a laundress and a housemaid. The eldest daughter, Annie, had left home by this time and had married at some time; she attended his deathbed as Annie Shill, and possibly the wedding of William and Henrietta twenty-two years later as Annie Blackman.

Managing a business such as a garment must have clear organizational structure, financial management, and production implementation so that company goals can be achieved according to the targets set by a company. The purpose of this research is to describe the business studies in "Vandev" Garments, especially in the production implementation section, which includes the manufacturing process of 3 products, namely jackets, jersey products, and shirt products. In this study, researchers used a descriptive research design with a qualitative approach. Checking the validity of the findings using source triangulation and triangulation techniques Based on the results of the researcher's findings that, all implementation of the production section is in accordance with the Indonesian National Work Competency Standards starting from the process of preparing product samples, the pattern making process, the process of spreading cloth, the process of cutting cloth, the process of numbering the materials, grouping the materials that have been given number, screen printing / embroidery, sewing process, finishing, cleaning clothes from thread remnants (trimming), packaging ironing process. The production implementation process is carried out in each worker's home, so that quality control is carried out every 2 days. Even though production is carried out in each worker's house, it does not change the quality of the product. When the trimming process uses the manual method instead of using a metal detector machine, you must be more careful in checking the product. The product marketing process is not only from within the country but has reached abroad. Suggestions for Garments "Vandev" regarding production management as input to further improve the skills of production employees. The last suggestion is for other researchers that this research can be an input and a reference for similar research but with a more detailed and more detailed discussion of the garment business study, so that it can add new insights for other researchers. Mengelola suatu usaha seperti garmen harus jelas struktur organisasinya, pengelolaan keuangan, serta pelaksanaan produksinya agar tujuan perusahaan bisa tercapai sesuai target yang ditentukan suatu perusahaan tersebut. Tujuan dari penelitian ini untuk mendeskripsikan studi usaha yang ada di Garmen “Vandev” terutama pada bagian pelaksanaan produksi meliputi proses pembuatan 3 produk yaitu jaket, produk jersey, dan produk kemeja. Pada penelitian ini peneliti menggunakan rancangan penelitian deskriptif dengan pendekatan kualitatif. Pengumpulan data yang diperoleh peneliti mulai dari proses wawancara 2 karyawan dan 1 pemilik garmen, observasi saat proses produksi berlangsung, serta dokumentasi saat proses produksi. Pengecekan keabsahan temuan menggunakan triangulasi sumber dan triangulasi teknik. Berdasarkan hasil temuan penelti bahwa, semua pelaksanaan bagian produksi telah sesuai dengan Standar Kompetensi Kerja Nasional Indonesia mulai dari proses menyiapkan contoh produk (sample), proses pembuatan pola, proses mengelar kain, proses memotong kain, proses penomeran pada bahan, pengelompokkan bahan yang sudah diberi nomer, sablon/bordir, proses menjahit, finishing, membersihkan pakaian dari sisa-sisa benang (trimming), proses penyetrikaan pengemasan. Proses pelaksanan produksi dilakukan di rumah masing-masing pekerja, sehingga quality control dilakukan setiap 2 hari sekali. Meskipun produksi dilakukan di masing-masing rumah pekerja tidak merubah kualitas produk tersebut. Saat proses trimming menggunakan cara manual bukan menggunakan mesin metal detector sehingga harus lebih teliti dalam memeriksa produknya. Proses pemasaran produk bukan hanya dari dalam negeri melainkan sudah sampai ke luar negeri. Saran bagi Garmen “Vandev” mengenai pengelolaan produksi sebagai masukan untuk lebih meningkatkan keterampilan para karyawan bagian produksi. Saran yang terakhir yaitu bagi peneliti lain bahwa penelitian ini bisa menjadi masukan serta menjadi referensi untuk penelitian sejenisnya namun dengan pembahasan yang lebih diperinci dan lebih detail mengenai studi usaha garmen, sehingga dapat menambah wawasan baru bagi peneliti lainnya.

A company needs to implement production planning to minimize time and cost. Forecasting and scheduling are two methods which should be conducted in production planning. By implementing the learning and forgetting curve methods, the labor needs as well as the decrease of labors performance after break can be predicted. Firstly, various learning curve models are presented, then each model was analyzed one by one so that the model with the smallest error rate could be determined. A case study conducted in the learning curve model is presented with data derived from the production floor. The four main purposes of this study were to calculate the percentage of each station learning curve, learning and forgetting curves in the company, minimum initial cost, and predict the number of employees needed for the lowest in the number of the work station company. The results in the percentage achieved for the learning curve is 91.47%, the gluing station 78.46%, variation sewing station 98.10%, thumb sewing station 88.17%, omo connect sewing station 89.65%, machine sewing station 87.33%, omo folding sewing station 85.42, rubber tide sewing station 92.51%, sewing station tide studs 72.37%, omo tape sewing station 61.74%, and vilcro sewing station 75.89%, respectively. By analyzing the percentage of each station learning curve, a comparison between the highest and lowest percentage learning curve on the company was made. Thus, it is known that omo tape sewing station needs another operator as the additional labor. The percentage of the forgetting curve is 91.59%. Through a search conducted on the cumulative hours of the productive company, the initial cost of production can be minimized to 15.600 Indonesian rupiah.

Abstract Standard minute value serves as a pivotal metric guiding the arrangement and balancing of production cycles in clothing production lines, and plays a crucial role in cost pricing and production order arrangement for clothing products. Given the complexity of the garment sewing process, ten influencing factors including fabric weight, fabric thickness, fabric density, stitching length, stitching shapes, cut pieces numbers, notch numbers, sewing technologies, sewing machine, and auxiliary accessories were identified. Upon this foundation, a standard sewing time prediction model, Improved particle swarm optimization - Back-propagation neural network (IPSO-BP), was proposed, focusing on non-quantitative factors. The IPSO-BP model was trained using actual sewing data from a women’s clothing production company. Compared to the unoptimized BP neural network, the IPSO-BP model demonstrated significant advantages in terms of convergence speed and prediction accuracy. Therefore, the IPSO-BP model proposed in this study holds promise for predicting standard sewing hours effectively.

Abstract Standard time is a key indicator to measure the production efficiency of the sewing department, and it plays a vital role in the production forecast for the apparel industry. In this article, the grey correlation analysis was adopted to identify seven sources as the main influencing factors for determination of the standard time in the sewing process, which are sewing length, stitch density, bending stiffness, fabric weight, production quantity, drape coefficient, and length of service. A novel forecasting model based on support-vector machine (SVM) with particle swarm optimization (PSO) is then proposed to predict the standard time of the sewing process. On the ground of real data from a clothing company, the proposed forecasting model is verified by evaluating the performance with the squared correlation coefficient (R2) and mean square error (MSE). Using the PSO-SVM method, the R2 and MSE are found to be 0.917 and 0.0211, respectively. In conclusion, the high accuracy of the PSO-SVM method presented in this experiment states that the proposed model is a reliable forecasting tool for determination of standard time and can achieve good predicted results in the sewing process.

Sewing machine operators are at high risk of developing musculoskeletal disorders due toworking in seated position at poorly designed workstations, performing the same operation during theentire course of the workday. The poor postures resulting from these conditions, combined with highlyrepetitive and time-pressured work may result in high incidence of work-related musculoskeletal disordersamong sewing machine operators. The main objective of this study was to analyze the relationshipbetween the distance from elbows to seat pan and musculoskeletal complaints among sewing machineoperators in a plastic manufacturing company.This is ananalytical research using cross sectional approach. The total number of subjects understudy were 74 subjects out of a total of 286 workers drawn by random sampling.The study discovered that respondents were subjected to not ergonomics elbow position as manyas 89.6 %, with mild complaints 50 % and serious complaints was 50 %. The chi square test proved thatthere was a relationship between the distance of elbow to the seat with mosculoskeletal complaints.The result of this study concluded that musculoskeletal complaints are prevalent among sewingworkers. Therefore, it is recommended that the company should provide adjustable chairs, allow frequentshort breaks and adequate work spaces to all workers in order to reduce future musculoskeletalcomplaints.

PT. Kharisma S.F is a company that produces sporty shoes with the Eagle, Nevada, and Fladeo brands. PT. Kharisma experienced a defect in the production process, which occurred in the sewing process and assembly process. However, the most common disability experienced by PT. S.F's charisma is a defect in the sewing process. This research focuses on the inspection of the production of Eagle brand shoes. With these problems, it is necessary to carry out quality control, which is useful for regulating the various products produced so that they can have good quality. To determine the level of a defect in the DPMO value and sigma value, to find out the various factors that cause the high level of product defects, and to provide suggestions for improvement and quality control to reduce the number of product defects, Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and Lean Six Sigma methods were used. Data were obtained from the company for three months and from 6 respondents to identify waste. From the results of research conducted. It can be seen that the factor that most influences the length of waiting time in production is the human factor. The highest identification of waste is defects. There are two types of defects, namely sewing defects and assembly defects. As for alternative improvements to reduce the number of defects, namely checking machine parts on the production floor with a checklist every day and replacing machine parts that are damaged or have expired, and providing regular training to operators scheduled once every three months.

Quality control becomes an important key for companies in suppressing the number of defective produced products. Six Sigma is a quality control method that aims to minimize defective products to the lowest point or achieve operational performance with a sigma value of 6 with only yielding 3.4 defective products of 1 million product. Stages of Six Sigma method starts from the DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control) stages that help the company in improving quality and continuous improvement. Based on the results of research on baby clothes products, data in March 2018 the percentage of defective products produced reached 1.4% exceeding 1% tolerance limit, with a Sigma value of 4.14 meaning a possible defect product of 4033.39 opportunities per million products. In the pareto diagram there were 5 types of CTQ (Critical to Quality) such as oblique obras, blobor screen printing, there is a fabric / head cloth code on the final product, hollow fabric / thin fabric fiber, and dirty cloth. The factors caused quality problems such as Manpower, Materials, Environtment, and Machine. Suggestion for consideration of company improvement was continuous improvement on every existing quality problem like in Manpower factor namely improving comprehension, awareness of employees in producing quality product and improve employee's accuracy, Strength Quality Control and give break time. Materials by making the method of cutting the fabric head, the Machine by scheduling machine maintenance and the provision of needle containers at each employees desk sewing and better environtment by installing exhaust fan and renovating the production room.

Abstract. PT. Langgeng Sentosa Garmindo is a company that produces apparel with one of its products being polo shirts. The problem that is being faced by the company is related to product quality, it is known that during quality inspections product defects are often found so that it needs to be reworked. Quality problems are reinforced by data on the number of product defects that still exceed the tolerance for defects by 1%. Product quality problems can be identified by the causes of the problems with the New Seven Tools method and the proposals with 5W+2H. The identification results obtained are for the sewing part which is the focus of repair with the causes of defects including lack of supervision from supervisiory, absence of periodic machine maintenance schedules, lack of knowledge about thread requirements, operators pursuing high wages, absence of work SOP reminders, absence of special operator training, unused items not being immediately disposed of and the company's climate is hot. The results of the proposed improvement of the 5W+2H method include making machine maintenance and cleaning schedules, making checksheets to carry out machine maintenance activities, giving instructions to supervisors to carry out strict supervision, increasing understanding of work instructions and providing motivation, making displays, making samples of calculating yarn requirements, making operator training schedules, making checksheets for machine conditions and disposing of or moving damaged machines, as well as cleaning building ventilation and adding temperature control devices in the form of exhaust fans. Keywords: New Seven Tools, Product Quality, 5W+2H. Abstrak. PT. Langgeng Sentosa Garmindo merupakan sebuah perusahaan yang memproduksi pakaian jadi dengan salah satu produk yang dihasilkannya adalah kaus polo. Masalah yang sedang dihadapi oleh perusahaan berkaitan dengan kualitas produk, hal tersebut diketahui ketika pemeriksaan kualitas sering dijumpai kecacatan produk sehingga perlu dilakukan rework. Permasalahan kualitas dikuatkan dengan data jumlah kecacatan produk yang masih melebihi toleransi kecacatan sebesar 1%. Permasalahan kualitas produk dapat diidentifikasi penyebab-penyebab masalahnya dengan metode New Seven Tools serta usulannya dengan 5W+2H. Hasil identifikasi yang didapatkan yaitu bagian sewing yang menjadi fokus perbaikan dengan penyebab kecacatan diantaranya kurangnya pengawasan supervisor, tidak adanya jadwal perawatan mesin berkala, kurang mengetahui mengenai kebutuhan benang, operator mengejar capaian upah tinggi, tidak adanya pengingat SOP kerja, tidak adanya pelatihan khusus operator, barang yang tidak terpakai tidak segera dibuang dan iklim perusahaan yang panas. Hasil usulan perbaikan metode 5W+2H diantaranya membuat jadwal perawatan dan pembersihan mesin, pembuatan checksheet untuk melakukan aktivitas perawatan mesin, memberikan instruksi kepada supervisor untuk melakukan pengawasan ketat, meningkatkan pemahaman instruksi kerja dan pemberian motivasi, pembuatan display, pembuatan contoh perhitungan kebutuhan benang, pembuatan jadwal pelatihan operator, pembuatan checksheet kondisi mesin dan melakukan pembuangan atau pemindahan mesin rusak, serta pembersihan ventilasi gedung dan penambahan alat pengatur suhu yang berupa exhaust fan. Kata Kunci: New Seven Tools, Kualitas Produk, 5W+2H.

Efficient use of capacity is significant to enable apparel businesses to work cost-effectively and provide timely service to their customers. The increase in assembly-line efficiency is associated with lower operating costs. Therefore, the main purpose of balancing assembly lines is to manufacture products as profitable and as quickly as possible. In this study, we consider a single-model assembly line balancing problem with workforce and machine constraints in the sewing department of an apparel company. We develop an integer programming (IP) model to optimally balance the shirt production line, considering parallel machines in each stage of the line and various operational constraints such as cycle time and precedence constraints, task machine eligibility, the number of operators available. The IP model can either minimize the number of open workstations or both, minimize the number of open workstations and assign tasks in subassembly parts as close to each other as possible. The model has been run under various scenarios using LINGO 15.0 optimization software. Additionally, we have balanced the shirt production line using the Ranked Positional Weight Method (RPWM). The IP model outperforms the RPWM results across all scenarios and finds 33 stations and 86.8% efficiency compared to 38 stations and 75.4% balance efficiency with the RPWM.

Abstract. CV. X is a company that produces jeans. The problem faced by the company is the non-achievement of the product as much as 22% of the target set at 100 pcs of jeans per week including overtime. The operator carries out production activities from the beginning (processing) to the end (finishing) totaling 2 workers. This is due to the limited number of existing operators and the difference in the production process time carried out by the operator. The difference in product completion time is due to the fact that the company does not have a standard time for the production process as well as limited facilities for the company. The purpose of this study is to measure the standard time to become a standard for operators and the company's basis in determining the target and the number of operators needed in the production process. The methods used in this study are measurement of standard time with downtime, calculation of workload and operator needs using Work Load Analysis (WLA). The standard time for producing jeans on operator 1 for 87.07 minutes and operator 2 for 93.13 minutes. WLA values were obtained values of 1.51 (151%) for operator 1 and 1.62 (162%) for operator 2 indicating that the workload received by the operator >100% or overloaded, the result indicates that it is necessary to add an operator. The results of the calculation of additional operators required as many as 1 person by utilizing packaging part operators and adding work facilities in the form of 1 cutting machine, a single needle sewing machine, and an overlock machine. The load obtained after the proposal decreased by close to 100% and the achievement of the target was above 100 pcs per week. Keywords: Workload, Standard Time, Number of Operators Required, Work Load Analysis. Abstrak. CV. X merupakan perusahaan yang memproduksi celana jeans. Permasalahan yang dihadapi perusahaan yaitu ketidaktercapaian produk sebanyak 22% dari target yang ditetapkan sebanyak 100 pcs celana perminggu termasuk dengan overtime. Operator melakukan kegiatan produksi dari awal (pemolaan) sampai akhir (finishing) berjumlah 2 orang tenaga kerja. Hal ini disebabkan terbatasnya jumlah operator yang ada serta perbedaan waktu proses produksi yang dilakukan operator. Perbedaan waktu penyelesaian produk disebabkan karena perusahaan tidak memiliki waktu standar untuk proses produksi serta keterbatasan fasilitas pada perusahaan. Tujuan penelitian ini yaitu mengukur waktu baku untuk menjadi standar bagi operator dan dasar perusahaan dalam menentukan target serta jumlah operator yang dibutuhkan dalam proses produksi. Metode yang digunakan pada penelitian ini yaitu pengukuran waktu baku dengan jam henti, perhitungan beban kerja dan kebutuhan operator menggunakan Work Load Analysis (WLA). Waktu baku untuk memproduksi celana jeans pada operator 1 selama 87,07 menit dan operator 2 selama 93,13 menit. Nilai WLA didapatkan nilai 1,51 (151%) untuk operator 1 dan 1,62 (162%) untuk operator 2 yang menunjukkan bahwa beban kerja yang diterima operator >100% atau overload, hasil tersebut menunjukkan bahwa perlu dilakukannya penambahan operator. Hasil perhitungan tambahan operator yang diperlukan sebanyak 1 orang dengan memanfaatkan operator bagian pengemasan serta penambahan fasilitas kerja berupa 1 mesin potong, mesin jahit single needle, dan mesin obras. Beban yang didapat setelah usulan menurun mendekati 100% dan ketercapaian target sudah diatas 100 pcs perminggu. Kata Kunci: Beban Kerja, Waktu Baku, Kebutuhan Jumlah Operator, Work Load Analysis.

Photo by Robina Weermeijer on Unsplash INTRODUCTION Geographic inequities in access to donor lungs have persisted since the first successful lung transplant in 1983.[1] With unanswered questions regarding organ preservation and transport in the early days of transplantation, the United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS) understandably incorporated geography in the allocation algorithm. Today, geography is still the most influential criterion in the lung allocation algorithm.[2] As a result, patients in urban centers often receive transplants before patients in less-resourced rural areas. Ex vivo machine perfusion can significantly improve lung procurement and transport, offering longer preservation times before, after, or during transportation. Out-of-hospital perfusion centers, a recent addition to the healthcare field, may increase both the number of lungs available and potentially the distance they can travel. Before the adoption of machine perfusion becomes commonplace, UNOS should direct how to integrate machine perfusion into procurement networks best and shed the antiquated geographical confines that govern allocation today and compromise the ethical standards on which the field was founded. ANALYSIS l. The Past: A History of Geographic Disparities in Lung Transplantation Since the founding of UNOS in 1986, patient geography has been the first filter for all lung procurements. In the early days of the field, implementing these so-called donor service areas, while arbitrarily formed, made sense given the unknowns pertaining to lung preservation and transportation. For almost two decades, donor service areas and time on the waitlist governed lung allocation. In 1998, after physician protest and advocacy, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) delivered the Final Rule on Organ Transplantation to create a more equitable organ allocation system. Even then, it was not until 2005 that UNOS developed the lung allocation score, a quantitative metric that considered predicted waitlist survival and transplant benefit. The implementation of the lung allocation score in the U.S. and abroad by Eurotransplant was a success by multiple standards, most importantly reducing waitlist mortality to record lows.[3] However, a glaring problem remained: the donor service area criterion remained, and arbitrary geographical boundaries continued to govern the distribution of all procured lungs. Despite the improvements in waitlist mortality, regions with low rates of lung donation, primarily rural areas, have suffered disproportionately. Areas in the lowest quartile of lung availability had an 84 percent increased risk of waitlist death and a 57 percent lower transplantation rate than the top quartile.[4] In fact, simply moving to an adjacent donor service area a few miles away might double a patient’s chances of receiving a lung transplant, significantly more than that patient being bumped into a higher lung allocation score bracket.[5] That is, driving across an arbitrary border might increase one’s chances of receiving a new set of lungs. Unsurprisingly, analysis of data over the last decade shows that donor service areas are independently associated with disparities in access to lung transplants significantly more than any other factor, including gender, ethnicity, diagnosis group, or age. ll. The Future: Machine Perfusion and Equity in Organ Allocation Farther allocation distances are associated with sharper drops in waitlist mortality. A model from Stanford University demonstrates that expanding the existing 250-mile threshold to a 500-mile threshold would decrease waitlist mortality by 21.3 percent; an expansion of 1000 miles would lower it by 31.8 percent.[6] Since lungs are already more delicate than other solid organs,[7] an expansion would require better and longer preservation. The answer is already here: machine perfusion. Ex vivo machine perfusion of organs prior to transplantation has grown remarkably over the past two decades, with recent clinical trial results demonstrating the ability of machine perfusion to resuscitate and assess “marginal” organs prior to transplantation.[8] Many centers around the U.S. already apply machine perfusion to expand the donor pool, and the adoption of machine perfusion as common practice is burgeoning. While the availability of more organs will decrease waiting list mortality, it alone will not address the longstanding geographical disparities. In fact, unless there is deliberate preparation by UNOS, this new biotechnology could very easily exacerbate geographic disparities. It is currently an expensive technology that is exclusive to urban centers with an already high organ availability. Proper foresight before widespread adoption is critical. As machine perfusion will extend the preservation of all solid organs, discussions must start taking place now regarding larger allocation boundaries or even a boundless system altogether. One concern is that organs resuscitated in this manner will have lower efficacy than organs preserved on ice and rapidly transplanted. Yet, a recent retrospective study from the Toronto group showed that longer perfusion times over 12 hours do not impact patient outcomes,[9] and some groups have had success with preservation times over 20 hours.[10] In addition to longer preservation times, machine perfusion can easily be made portable. Data from a recent international pivotal trial using the Organ Care System (OCS) from the Massachusetts-based company TransMedics showed the promising ability of portable machine perfusion to preserve and resuscitate marginal lungs. Indeed, while much of the attention around machine perfusion has been about its capability to resuscitate marginal organs, its secondary ability, allowing farther transport of lungs, could end geographic disparities in organ allocation. Before it is universally adopted into clinical practice, it is imperative that UNOS acts now to direct hospitals on how to integrate machine perfusion into procurement networks. There also must be preemptive policies regarding out-of-hospital perfusion centers. The first and only example thus far is the private corporation Lung Bioengineering, located in Silver Spring, Maryland. This standalone center aims to resuscitate and analyze declined lungs via machine perfusion, shipping viable ones to nearby U.S. transplant centers. The company is currently finishing a phase 2 clinical trial assessing the safety of extending lung preservation times with it. Unless decisive action is taken now, these centers will continue to open exclusively in urban areas surrounded by high-volume centers. To engage in the UNOS organ allocation system, private corporations should be required to distribute to rural and previously under-resourced areas. This could be accomplished by setting up satellite campuses or investing in the necessary infrastructure to preserve and deliver organs far distances portably. CONCLUSION We finally have the tools to extinguish the perennial problem of geographic disparities in organ allocation. Within the next five to ten years, there will be widespread adoption of machine perfusion, both in hospitals and in out-of-hospital perfusion centers. In an already convoluted organ allocation system, it will further complicate organ allocation and will potentially worsen disparities if action is not taken upfront. Establishing regulations to ensure machine perfusion is leveraged in a way that is equitable to all who need solid organ transplants, not only those who live within 250 miles of transplant centers, is crucial. It is necessary for UNOS to be ahead of the curve, mitigate these potential consequences, and reprioritize the ethical principles on which the field was founded. This example should serve as a model for how biotechnology can ameliorate disparities – geographic or otherwise – in scarce resource allocation in healthcare. [1] Lynch, R. J., and R. E. Patzer. 2019. "Geographic inequity in transplant access." Curr Opin Organ Transplant 24 (3): 337-342. https://doi.org/10.1097/MOT.0000000000000643. [2] Goff, R. R., E. D. Lease, S. Sweet, A. Robinson, and D. Stewart. 2020. “Measuring and Monitoring Equity in Access to Deceased Donor Lung Transplants among Waitlisted Candidates.” J Hear Lung Transplant 39 (4): S216. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healun.2020.01.847. [3] Egan, T. M. 2018. "From 6 years to 5 days for organ allocation policy change." J Heart Lung Transplant 37 (5): 675-677. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healun.2017.12.010. [4] Benvenuto, L. J., D. R. Anderson, H. P. Kim, J. L. Hook, L. Shah, H. Y. Robbins, F. D'Ovidio, M. Bacchetta, J. R. Sonett, S. M. Arcasoy, and Program From the Columbia University Lung Transplant. 2018. "Geographic disparities in donor lung supply and lung transplant waitlist outcomes: A cohort study." Am J Transplant 18 (6): 1471-1480. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajt.14630. [5] Kosztowski, M., S. Zhou, E. Bush, R. S. Higgins, D. L. Segev, and S. E. Gentry. 2019. "Geographic disparities in lung transplant rates." Am J Transplant 19 (5): 1491-1497. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajt.15182. [6] Mooney, J. J., J. Bhattacharya, and G. S. Dhillon. 2019. "Effect of broader geographic sharing of donor lungs on lung transplant waitlist outcomes." J Heart Lung Transplant 38 (2): 136-144. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healun.2018.09.007. [7] Possoz, J., A. Neyrinck, and D. Van Raemdonck. 2019. "Ex vivo lung perfusion prior to transplantation: an overview of current clinical practice worldwide." J Thorac Dis 11 (4): 1635-1650. https://doi.org/10.21037/jtd.2019.04.33. [8] Noah, C. V., P. Tratnig-frankl, S. Raigani, C. Cetrulo, K. Uygun, and H. Yeh. 2020. “Moving the Margins: Updates on the Renaissance in Machine Perfusion for Organ Transplantation.” Curr Transplant Reports 7 (2): 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40472-020-00277-z. [9] Yeung, J. C., T. Krueger, K. Yasufuku, M. de Perrot, A. F. Pierre, T. K. Waddell, L. G. Singer, S. Keshavjee, and M. Cypel. 2017. "Outcomes after transplantation of lungs preserved for more than 12 h: a retrospective study." Lancet Respir Med 5 (2): 119-124. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-2600(16)30323-X. [10] Cypel, M., A. Neyrinck, and T. N. Machuca. 2019. "Ex vivo perfusion techniques: state of the art and potential applications." Intensive Care Med 45 (3): 354-356. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00134-019-05568-3.

Introduction In March 2020, many societal functions came to a standstill due to the worldwide spread of Covid-19. Due to the rules set by public healthcare authorities that aimed at “social distancing” to prevent the spread of the virus, the emphasis on domesticity was heightened during the pandemic. As people were forced to spend more time in the home environment, more time was allowed for household pursuits and local activities, such as crafts and home repair (Morse, Fine, and Friedlander). While there has been a rising interest in craft-making as the medium of expression for the past few decades (e.g., Peach), crafts seem to have undergone a serious breakthrough during the global pandemic crisis. In recent studies, crafting has been noted for its usefulness in providing a dimension of comfort and security in a time of instability and isolation (Rixhon), eventually becoming a much-needed conceptual shelter from the threat of the virus (Martin). Sewing seems to have assumed a significant role early in the pandemic, when craft-makers began to mitigate the spread of the virus by using their own sewing machines and material stashes to make masks for their families and friends; some also donated masks to hospital workers and others in need (Martindale, Armstead, and McKinney). While other forms of crafts were also widely practiced (e.g., Jones; Stalp, Covid-19 Global Quilt; Wenzel), face-mask sewing has been at the core of pandemic craft research, highlighting the role of home-based hobby crafting as a means of social survival that contributed to people's agency and feelings of productivity and usefulness during the outbreak of coronavirus (Hahn and Bhaduri; Hustvedt and Liang; Martindale, Armstead, and McKinney; Richards and Perreault; Schnittka). This article analyses two craft hashtags on Instagram from March 2020 to December 2021, which offer a perspective on shifts in pandemic crafts in a linguistically localised crafting community. The hashtags crop up in the Finnish-speaking craft culture, defining pandemic crafts as “Covid craft”, #koronakäsityö, and “Covid crafts”, #koronakäsityöt. By definition, the Finnish word “käsityö” (which derives from the words “käsi”, hand, and “työ”, work) is a broad concept for all handiwork: it is not tied to any specific craft technique, but rather affirms work made by hand, or with tools that are held in hands. In addition, the concept of “käsityö” has no intended emphasis in regard of the phase of the project, or craft techniques or materials being used: it translates as an entity including both the idea of the product that is going to be made during the process of crafting, the embodied craft know-how of the making of the product, and the product itself (Kojonkoski-Rännäli 31; also Ihatsu). However, as is also disclosed in this study, the “käsityö” seems to have a connotation of craft work traditionally made by the persons assumed female by society or other people, and thus, findings may build on domesticity related to textile crafting (see Kouhia, Unraveling, 8, 17). The research questions driving this research are: (1) what kind of crafts were made, and how were these crafts contextualised during the pandemic; and (2) how was domesticity reflected in the pandemic crafting? The analysis explains how hobby crafts appeared as reactive pastimes, and how pandemic crafting set a debate on the implementation of alternative futures, interlinked with postfeminist forms of domesticity. As a result, it is shown that home-based hobby crafting was not only capable of upholding a sense of response and recovery for the makers during the pandemic, but also developing and bringing forth new trends within the maker culture. Domestic Crafting in the Digital Age In the Western narrative, crafts have been traditionally considered as generative quotidian activities positioned in the domestic space (Hardy; Thompson). In its history, domestic crafting has been practiced within a range of morals spanning from early conceptions of conspicuous leisure as an “unproductive expenditure of time” (Veblen 45) and 1950s feminine virtues like “thrift, practical creativity, and attention to appearance” (McLean 259) to today’s subversive, expressive Do-It-Yourself (DIY) along with the emergence of Third Wave Feminism that has powers to “resist capitalist materialism tendencies” (Stalp, Girls, 264). Often discussed in relation to femininity and unpaid labour—that include nuanced arguments of female subordination, sexuality, and housewifery (MacDonald 47; Parker 2–3; Turney 9)—contemporary crafting is seen not only to fall in the habitual expectations of domesticity, but also to have the capability to subvert and resist them. Indeed, while crafts such as knitting, sewing, and crocheting claimed their status as recreational leisure activities already in the late twentieth century with the changes related to construction of contemporary femininity (Groeneveld 264; Turney 2), there are still many issues and inequalities related to home-based hobby crafting. Predominantly, contemporary home crafts seem to be somewhat challenged by the lack of alternatives to the gendering of the domestic sphere (see Ceuterick). While home crafts are no longer social or economic domestic necessities and not practised by all or exclusively by women, home crafts still “continue to be perceived as a middle-class activity, a distraction and leisure pursuit for ‘ladies’ with time and means” (Hackney 170). While home-based hobby crafts cover many forms of making, ethical and social concerns that offer alternative and countercultural ways of living and consuming have become increasingly visible in contemporary crafting. Today’s hobby crafts operate within structures of everyday life and underpin plurality, complexity, and richness of amateur experience (Knott 124). Contemporary hobby crafting is also boosted by the revitalisation of old skills and the entrenchment of a home culture that utilises "retro cultures" (Hunt and Phillipov), and the increased interest of young adults in DIY culture (Kouhia, Unraveling; Stannard and Sanders). Almost a decade ago, Hunt and Phillipov put forward a discussion of the regained popularity of old-fashioned “Nanna Style” home practices. They noticed that young, activist makers praised these grandmotherly practices as “simultaneously nostalgic and politically progressive choices”, calling in countercultural politics of gender and consumption, and confusing the seemingly conservative lines “between imagined utopias of domesticity and the economic and environmental realities of contemporary consumer culture” (Hunt and Phillipov). Paired with ethical consumption, this promoted liberated postfeminist domesticity, a refusal of the capitalist structures of consumption, and a move away from binaries between the masculine and the feminine. Again, a return to domestic activities such as cooking, cleaning, and crafting was witnessed during the Covid-19 pandemic, with people inscribing the domestic chores as postfeminist choices rather than oppression (Ceuterick) and participating in the production of meaning as a “redomesticated woman” (Negra 16, cited in Palomeque Recio). Methodology Today, social media resources provide a fundamental theoretical lens used by the researchers with powers to function both as an enabler and a driver of innovation (Bhimani, Mention, and Barlatier). Social media channels allow people to derive value from self-generated content, promoting interpersonal connectedness with the sharing of details of the daily lives of the individuals (Nabity-Grover, Cheung, and Thatcher) with social support, referability, and potential correspondence enclosed from around cyberspace (Hajli). The article is based on qualitative social media research on Instagram, with aims to study the perpetual interest in hobby crafts during the pandemic. The study leans on the research paradigm known as ‘netnography’, which is a qualitative research methodology based on collecting, adapting, reflecting, and interacting with online traces with “a cultural focus on understanding the data derived from social media data” (Kozinets 6). Social media data consisting of 361 posts have been derived from Instagram’s #koronakäsityö and #koronakäsityöt hashtag feeds, and interpreted from the viewpoint of the content of the images and the context of their production (see Yang 17). The data collection took place from March 2020 to December 2021. I have followed the stream of posts using Instagram’s follow function from the position of a craft researcher and serious hobbyist (see Stebbins; Kouhia, Unraveling) from spring 2020, when the first Covid craft publications were published. Since then, the posts have been visible in the image stream of my own Instagram account, which has given me a preliminary view of the content of the publications. The data collection was ceased in December 2021 due to the decrease of posted content. All posts are connected to the Finnish craft culture through the hashtags used as descriptions of “käsityö”, and they are approached as forms of self-disclosure of Covid-era hobby crafting (see Nabity-Grover, Cheung, and Thatcher). The posts were collected at several points during the research period and were manually extracted to Excel tables with the post content data (date and week of publication, account name of the publisher, number of images, captions and hashtags). The data were analysed using qualitative approaches to Instagram data (Yang 19), with main emphasis on the posts’ visual material (Rose) analysed with a qualitative content analysis approach (see Hsieh and Shannon). The data were first charted and thematised by 1) the type and technique of craft presented (e.g., knitting, macramé, yarn balls, etc.), and 2) the display of the craft maker (age, gender, presentation in the post in relation or with the craft), and subsequently, evaluated by 3) looking at the production of domesticity in the posts (presentation and description of the domestic space). I have tried to ensure the validity of research with consistency and trust value (see Noble and Smith), making my research decisions clear and transparent, and viewing the experiences that may have resulted in methodological bias. However, given the multiple realities of qualitative research ontology, research validity needs to be framed within complex social and cultural rationales, and paired with the aim of “maintaining cohesion between the study’s aim, design and methods” (Noble and Smith 35). Considering the ethics of using social media data, all posts considered as the data of this study have been published on public Instagram accounts, and their reporting adheres to anonymous indirect quoting and image manipulation. Pandemic Domestic Crafting on Instagram Pandemic crafting consisted of many kinds of crafts. During the long review period, Covid crafts centred strikingly around textile-making: the most outstanding crafting techniques were knitting, crocheting, and sewing (table 1). Other kinds of textile crafts, like macramé, weaving, fabric printing and painting, embroidery, and clothing repair, were also displayed, yet with minor emphasis in comparison to yarn craft techniques and sewing. Some images presented textile handicraft tools, materials and machines, such as balls of yarn, beads, needles, and sewing machines. Only a few images contained artisanship with hard materials, with these few photos including multimaterial jewellery, boat carving, repairing a terrace, and building a wooden wall behind an outdoor mailbox. Table 1. The kinds of crafts posted on Instagram during the pandemic: a summary based on #koronakäsityö and #koronakäsityöt. Regarding the phase of the crafting project, most images concentrated on depicting completed, finished craft products. In addition to woollen socks, knitwear, macrame works, and clothes, everyday handicrafts endemic to the period, such as sewn masks and crocheted mask holders, were also portrayed as Corona crafts. Besides the kinds of crafts made, it is also important to look at the shifts in Covid-related craft content. Indeed, mask sewing posts and links to news on the positive role of crafting in times of crisis started to crop up in social media platforms already in the early phase of the pandemic (Kouhia, Online); in parallel, related social media hashtags emerged to identify the content. The first images of Covid crafts were posted on Instagram in late March 2020. These images were captioned with momentary descriptions of the disruption the habituated everyday routines, but also granted more time to crafts. As social-distancing weeks passed, Covid crafting quickly evolved in accordance with the first wave of the virus infection, eventually rising to its peak in April 2020. In parallel to the easing of the Covid outbreak in the summer of 2020, Covid crafting and posts diminished. As the situation became worse again in the autumn with the rise of the second wave of the virus, Covid crafting increased, and recurred until the spring of 2021. Towards the end of 2021, spontaneous Corona craft publications became irregular. Pandemic crafts seemed to be recurrently contextualised with the continual transformation of materiality within the domestic space. Craft-makers described having drawn inspiration from their old craft material stashes and returned to projects that had been left untouched and unfinished for one reason or another for months, years, and sometimes even decades. Makers—most of them likely falling, based on popularity of textile hobby crafts in Finland (see Pöllänen) and the interviews conducted among the publishers of the Covid craft-related posts, in the social categories of white, middle-aged, mostly urban able-bodied anticipated women—described having felt there was more time for crafting, and due to the restricted domestic space, an embodied and infinite push of being ecological and using the resources that they had at hand. In this sense, craft-makers not only showed abilities and resilience to react to the changing situation, but also unfolded crafting as an expression and a form of self-disclosure, with powers to make visible the value of care of the environment as a contribution to societal wellbeing. All in all, experiences of crafting as a self-chosen, self-maintained privilege seemed to afford a sense of flexibility. Further, this facilitated the reframing of the increased domestic activities as postfeminist choices and crafting as care for the home and family, as discussed in the following data excerpt: Thanks to Covid, I’ve had an excuse to take up the sewing machine and play with fabrics. I had completely forgotten how fun it is to design clothes, the process has really taken me out. Especially, if one wants more special children’s clothes, they will cost you like several bags of toilet paper = which is as much as hell, if you don’t make the clothes yourself. Also works as a pretty good motivator though 😂💪 (#koronakäsityöt Instagram post from April 2020) As the posts mainly cover textile crafting, feminine domesticity with the symbolised oppressive feminine social ideals of good mothering and housewifery are embedded in the narrative through at-home managerialism, like taking care of the household and maintaining children’s clothing. Indeed, the care of the family was repeatedly addressed in craft posts, with descriptions of mothers making clothes for their children—sometimes at the request of the kids, and but most often as daily chores of wearing and caring. For some craft-makers, textile crafting seemed to offer a passage to continue the mundane, domesticated policies that were already established at home; in other words, those who had been already keen on textile hobby crafting were suddenly offered more time for their beloved leisure practice. In addition, there were also new makers entering the field of crafting, who started practicing leisure crafts for the first time, or those who returned to their once-lost hobby. However, argumentation that framed Covid crafting tended to embrace craft-making as a conscious decision to live up to the images of femininity it may entail, and not particularly having the resources to transform the entrenched roles and figures it might provoke. Also, Covid crafting managed to also disclose a view of the intimate, framing the at-home private space and decorating it with the feminised imperatives of thriftiness, laboriousness, and austerity (see Bramall). Indeed, crafts seemed to be confined to the household space, which itself has been inherently political during the pandemic (e.g., Martin), and framed as distinctively individual choices to demonstrate the morale of staying at home and taking active ownership of the domestic space. Sometimes crafts were lined up in a space of their usage, like hanging macramé baskets and shawls placed on a sofa (fig. 1), though occupying the domestic space conveniently and adaptively, but without a deep questioning or consideration of the traditional binary oppositions between private and public spaces or home labour subscribing to anticipated masculinity or femininity. Rather, crafts seemed to be taken up as individual affirmative choices—not as household necessities, but as activities promoting the self-worth and personage of the makers and nurturing a sense of purpose and care in the lockdown homes. Fig. 1. Square crochet blanket occupying the domestic space. The image is manipulated by the author for the purposes of publication. Although crafts were purposefully placed on display in the posts, the main point was not in aesthetics based on strong image manipulation or the use of heavy filters, but rather showing off the permeability of the domestic space with the experiences of craft-makers living with a strong sense of satisfaction gained from crafting. Indeed, crafting itself can be interpreted as a resource contributing to the sense of perseverance and tenacity, giving a purpose for social survival in times of crisis: crafting was not cancelled, while almost everything else was paused. Discussion The pandemic had profound implications for the lives of millions of people, not only by compromising healthcare and economies, but also by reframing and revolutionising the meanings and values of moment-to-moment lifestyle choices and activities taking place at home. People were forced to re-engage in the practices of home and household during the pandemic, which changed their daily rhythm and transformed practices of the domestic space, further offering to revolutionise notions of domestic labour and care (Ceuterick). During the pandemic, domestic hobby crafting seemed to emerge as a phenomenon to influence social and cultural change, also providing makers with the experiences of usefulness to mitigate the changing circumstances. In line with the previous studies, this study implied that when contextualised within the frame of postmodern freedom, hobby crafts result in unique expressions that can sustain reflexivity, self-maintenance, and resilience (Kenning; Pöllänen), and reclaim a status as a public and social activity (Turney; Mayne). Within a study of 27 older adults practicing mask-sewing during the pandemic, Schnittka identified crafting to help other people to manage chaotic times, also contributing to makers' feelings of value, worthiness and purpose and their sense of control (225). Hahn and Bhaduri recognise similar habits in their study of mask-making behaviour, detailing that self-fulfilment and wellbeing as the most important reason for making masks, and financial motivation leaving behind other morals (307). Similar results can be also drawn based on this study; most importantly, the value of crafting as a flexible, self-sustained performance in the boundaries between the intimate and the shared. In this study, attention was drawn to hobby crafting intended for sharing online and situated in a linguistically localised cultural niche in a particular time frame. Thus, the study witnessed the rise and fall of “Covid-crafts” on Instagram through the analysis of two coronavirus-related craft hashtags that emerged in the Finnish-speaking crafting community. Although using linguistically and culturally situated data may limit the study, it also offers a view of crafting as a social and cultural phenomenon. In the future, more research needs to be undertaken on crafting regarding various geographic, political, cultural, and socio-economic venues, so that the nuanced and complex negotiations of domesticity could be examined and understood more thoroughly. Nevertheless, like the study by Martindale, Armstead, and McKinney, which reviewed publicly displayed face-mask sewing posts hashtagged with #sewingmasks and #sewingfacemask posted on Instagram in March 2020 (205), this study revealed that craft-makers were keen to share and exchange ideas and information online. In this study, Covid crafting seemed to be undertaken far from a complex choice—it was rather taken as a self-sustained, satisfactory leisure activity that aimed to maintain a sense of purpose rather than critique. Still, even the seemingly uncritical craft practice set to operate an inherently political act that made use of the changed resources in the family and household. Indeed, it can be concluded that in this time of crisis, crafting offered to raise a sense of wellbeing and individual identity of the maker, providing people with a means of reacting and being responsive to the changes of the world. The subversive potential of home-based hobby crafting seems to lie within the powers that may offer different ways for the makers to harness the mundane practice to different purposes to mitigate change, from resistance and revolution to the unravelling of societal and cultural prejudice and familial household care policies, to create better conditions for sustainable, humane, non-binary futures. References Bhimani, Hardik, Anne-Laure Mention, and Pierre-Jean Barlatier. "Social Media and Innovation: A Systematic Literature Review and Future Research Directions." Technological Forecasting and Social Change 144 (2019): 251–69. Bradbury, Alexandra, Katey Warran, Hei Wan Mak, and Daisy Fancourt. "The Role of the Arts during the COVID-19 Pandemic." Arts Council of the United Kingdom, 2021. 25 Aug. 2022 <https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/sites/default/files/download-file/UCL_Role_of_the_Arts_during_COVID_13012022_0.pdf>. Bramall, Rebecca. 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Perfume is a Japanese “techno-pop” idol trio formed in 2000 consisting of three women–Ayano Omoto, Yuka Kashino, and Ayaka Nishiwaki. Since 2007, when one of their songs was selected for a recycling awareness campaign by Japan's national public broadcaster, Perfume has been a consistent fixture in the Japanese pop music charts. They have been involved in the full gamut of typical idol activities, from television and radio shows to commercials for clothing brands, candy, and drinks. Their success reflects Japanese pop culture's long-standing obsession with pop idols, who once breaking into the mainstream, become ubiquitous cross-media presences. Perfume’s fame in Japan is due in large part to their masterful performance of traditional female idol roles, through which they assume the kaleidoscopic positions of daughter, sister, platonic friend, and heterosexual romantic partner depending on the standpoint of the beholder. In the lyrical content of their songs, they play the various parts of the cute but shy girl who loves from a distance, the strong compatriot that pushes the listener to keep striving for their dreams, and the kindred spirit with whom the listener can face life's ordinary challenges. Like other successful idols, their extensive lines of Perfume-branded merchandise and product endorsements make the exercise of consumer spending power by their fans a vehicle for them to approach the ideals and experiences that Perfume embodies. Yet, Perfume's videos, music, and stage performances are also replete with subversive images of machines, virtual cities and landscapes, and computer generated apparitions. In their works, the traditional idol as an object of consumer desire co-exists with images of the fragmentation of identity, distrust in the world and the senses, and the desire to escape from illusion, all presented in terms of encounters with technology. In what their fans call the "Near Future Trilogy", a set of three singles released soon after their major label debut (2005-06), lyrics refer to the artificiality and transience of virtual worlds ("Nothing I see or touch has any reality" from "Electro-World," or "I want to escape. I want to destroy this city created by immaculate computation" from "Computer City"). In their later work, explicit lyrical references to virtual worlds and machines largely disappear, but they are replaced with images and bodily performances of Perfume with robotic machinery and electronic information. Perfume is an idol group augmented by technology. In this paper, I explore the significance of these images of technological augmentation of the human body in the work of Perfume. I suggest that the ways these bodily encounters of the human body and technology are articulated in their work reflect broader social and economic anxieties and hopes in Japan. I focus in the first section of this paper on describing some of the recurring technological motifs in their works. Next, I show how their recent work is an experiment with the emergent possibilities of human-technology relationships for imagining Japan's future development. Not only in their visual and performance style, but in their modes of engagement with their fans through new media, I suggest that Perfume itself is attempting to seek out new forms of value creation, which hold the promise of pushing Japan out of the extended economic and social stagnation of its 1990s post-bubble "Lost Decade,” particularly by articulating how they connect with the world. The idol's technologically augmented body becomes both icon and experiment for rethinking Japan and staking out a new global position for it. Though I have referred above to Perfume as its three members, I also use the term to signify the broader group of managers and collaborating artists that surrounds them. Perfume is a creation of corporate media companies and the output of development institutions designed to train multi-talented entertainers from a young age. In addition to the three women who form the public face of Perfume, main figures include music producer Yasutaka Nakata, producer and choreographer MIKIKO, and more recently, the new media artist Daito Manabe and his company, Rhizomatiks. Though Perfume very rarely appear on stage or in their videos with any other identifiable human performers, every production is an effort involving dozens of professional staff. In this respect, Perfume is a very conventional pop idol unit. The attraction of these idols for their fans is not primarily their originality, creativity, or musicality, but their professionalism and image as striving servants (Yano 336). Idols are beloved because they "are well-polished, are trained to sing and act, maintain the mask of stardom, and are extremely skillful at entertaining the audience" (Iwabuchi 561). Moreover, their charisma is based on a relationship of omoiyari or mutual empathy and service. As Christine Yano has argued for Japanese Enka music, the singer must maintain the image of service to his or her fans and reach out to them as if engaged in a personal relationship with each (337). Fans reciprocate by caring for the singer, and making his or her needs their own, not the least of which are financial. The omoiyari relationship of mutual empathy and care is essential to the singer’s charismatic appeal (Yano 347). Thus it does not matter to their fans that Perfume do not play their own instruments or write their own songs. These are jobs for other professionals. However, mirroring the role of the employee in the Japanese company-as-family (see Kondo), their devotion to their jobs as entertainers, and their care and respect for their fans must be evident at all times. The tarnishing of this image, for instance through revelations of underage smoking or drinking, can be fatal, and has resulted in banishment from the media spotlight for some former stars. A large part of Japanese stars' conventional appeal is based on their appearance as devoted workers, consummate professionals, and partners in mutual empathy. As charismatic figures that exchange cultural ideals for fans’ disposable income, it is not surprising that many authors have tied the emergence of the pop idol to the height of Japan's economic prosperity in the 1970s and 1980s, when the social contract between labor and corporations that provided both lifelong employment and social identity had yet to be seriously threatened. Aoyagi suggests (82) that the idol system is tied to post-war consumerism and the increased importance of young adults, particularly women, as consumers. As this correlation between the health of idols and the economy might imply, there is a strong popular connection between concerns of social fission and discontent and economic stagnation. Koichi Iwabuchi writes that Japanese media accounts in the 1990s connected the health of the idol system to the "vigor of society" (555). As Iwabuchi describes, some Japanese fans have looked for their idols abroad in places such as Hong Kong, with a sense of nostalgia for a kind of stardom that has waned in Japan and because of "a deep sense of disillusionment and discontent with Japanese society" (Iwabuchi 561) following the collapse of Japan's bubble economy in the early 1990s. In reaction to the same conditions, some Japanese idols have attempted to exploit this nostalgia. During a brief period of fin-de-siècle optimism that coincided with neoliberal structural reforms under the government of Junichiro Koizumi, Morning Musume, the most popular female idol group at the time, had a hit single entitled "Love Machine" that ended the 1990s in Japan. The song's lyrics tie together dreams of life-long employment, romantic love, stable traditional families, and national resurgence, linking Japan's prosperity in the world at large to its internal social, emotional, and economic health. The song’s chorus declares, "The world will be envious of Japan's future!", although that future still has yet to materialize. In its place has appeared the "near-future" imaginary of Perfume. As mentioned above, the lyrics of some of their early songs referenced illusory virtual worlds that need to be destroyed or transcended. In their later works, these themes are continued in images of the bodies of the three performers augmented by technology in various ways, depicting the performers themselves as robots. Images of the three performers as robots are first introduced in the music video for their single "Secret Secret" (2007). At the outset of the video, three mannequins resembling Perfume are frozen on a futuristic TV soundstage being dressed by masked attendants who march off screen in lock step. The camera fades in and out, and the mannequins are replaced with the human members frozen in the same poses. Other attendants raise pieces of chocolate-covered ice cream (the music video also served as an advertisement for the ice cream) to the performers' mouths, which when consumed, activate them, launching them into a dance consisting of stilted, mechanical steps, and orthogonal arm positions. Later, one of the performers falls on stairs and appears to malfunction, becoming frozen in place until she receives another piece of ice cream. They are later more explicitly made into robots in the video for "Spring of Life" (2012), in which each of the three members are shown with sections of skin lifted back to reveal shiny, metallic parts inside. Throughout this video, their backs are connected to coiled cables hanging from the ceiling, which serve as a further visual sign of their robotic characters. In the same video, they are also shown in states of distress, each sitting on the floor with parts exposed, limbs rigid and performing repetitive motions, as though their control systems have failed. In their live shows, themes of augmentation are much more apparent. At a 2010 performance at the Tokyo Dome, which was awarded the jury selection prize in the 15th Japan Media Arts Festival by the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs, the centerpiece was a special performance entitled "Perfume no Okite" or "The Laws of Perfume." Like "Secret Secret," the performance begins with the emergence of three mannequins posed at the center of the stadium. During the introductory sequence, the members rise out of a different stage to the side. They begin to dance, synchronized to massively magnified, computer generated projections of themselves. The projections fluctuate between photorealistic representations of each member and ghostly CG figures consisting of oscillating lines and shimmering particles that perform the same movements. At the midpoint, the members each face their own images, and state their names and dates of birth before uttering a series of commands: "The right hand and right leg are together. The height of the hands must be precise. Check the motion of the fingers. The movement of the legs must be smooth. The palms of the hands must be here." With each command, the members move their own bodies mechanically, mirrored by the CG figures. After more dancing with their avatars, the performance ends with Perfume slowly lowered down on the platform at the center of the stage, frozen in the same poses and positions as the mannequins, which have now disappeared. These performances cleverly use images of robotic machinery in order to subvert Perfume's idol personas. The robotic augmentations are portrayed as vectors for control by some unseen external party, and each of the members must have their life injected into them through cables, ice cream, or external command, before they can begin to dance and sing as pop idols. Pop idols have always been manufactured products, but through such technological imagery Perfume make their own artificiality explicit, revealing to the audience that it is not the performers they love, but the emergent and contingently human forms of a social, technological, and commercial system that they desire. In this way, these images subvert the performers' charisma and idol fans' own feelings of adoration, revealing the premise of the idol system to have been manufactured to manipulate consumer affect and desire. If, as Iwabuchi suggests, some fans of idols are attracted to their stars by a sense of nostalgia for an age of economic prosperity, then Perfume's robotic augmentations offer a reflexive critique of this industrial form. In "The Laws of Perfume", the commands that comport their bodies may be stated in their own voices, yet they issue not from the members themselves, but their magnified and processed avatars. It is Perfume the commercial entity speaking. The malfunctioning bodies of Perfume depicted in "Secret Secret" and "Spring of Life" do not detract from their charisma as idols as an incident of public drunkenness might, because the represented breakdowns in their performances are linked not to the moral purity or professionalism of the humans, but to failures of the technological and economic systems that have supported them. If idols of a past age were defined by their seamless and idealized personas as entertainers and employees, then it is fitting that in an age of much greater economic and social uncertainty that they should acknowledge the cracks in the social and commercial mechanisms from which their carefully designed personas emerge. In these videos and performances, the visual trope of technological body augmentation serves as a means for representing both the dependence of the idol persona on consumer capitalism, and the fracturing of that system. However, they do not provide an answer to the question of what might lie beyond the fracturing. The only suggestions provided are the disappearance of that world, as in the end of "Computer City," or in the reproduction of the same structure, as when the members of Perfume become mannequins in "The Laws of Perfume" and "Secret Secret." Interestingly, it was with Perfume's management's decision to switch record labels and market Perfume to an international audience that Perfume became newly augmented, and a suggestion of an answer became visible. Perfume began their international push in 2012 with the release of a compilation album, "Love the World," and live shows and new media works in Asia and Europe. The album made their music available for purchase outside of Japan for the first time. Its cover depicts three posed figures computer rendered as clouds of colored dots produced from 3D scans of the members. The same scans were used to create 3D-printed plastic figures, whose fabrication process is shown in the Japanese television ad for the album. The robotic images of bodily augmentation have been replaced by a more powerful form of augmentation–digital information. The website which accompanied their international debut received the Grand Prix of the 17th Japan Media Arts Prize. Developed by Daito Manabe and Rhizomatiks, visitors to the Perfume Global website were greeted by a video of three figures composed of pulsating clouds of triangles, dancing to a heavy, glitch-laden electronic track produced by Nakata. Behind them, dozens of tweets about Perfume collected in real-time scroll across the background. Controls to the side let visitors change not only the volume of the music, but also the angle of their perspective, and the number and responsiveness of the pulsating polygons. The citation for the site's prize refers to the innovative participatory features of the website. Motion capture data from Perfume, music, and programming examples used to render the digital performance were made available for free to visitors, who were encouraged to create their own versions. This resulted in hundreds of fan-produced videos showing various figures, from animals and cartoon characters to swooshing multi-colored lines, dancing the same routine. Several of these were selected to be featured on the website, and were later integrated into the stage performance of the piece during Perfume's Asia tour. A later project extended this idea in a different direction, letting website visitors paint animations on computer representations of the members, and use a simple programming language to control the images. Many of these user creations were integrated into Perfume's 2013 performance at the Cannes Lions International Festival as advertising. Their Cannes performance begins with rapidly shifting computer graphics projected onto their costumes as they speak in unison, as though they are visitors from another realm: "We are Perfume. We have come. Japan is far to the east. To encounter the world, the three of us and everyone stand before you: to connect you with Japan, and to communicate with you, the world." The user-contributed designs were projected on to the members' costumes as they danced. This new mode of augmentation–through information rather than machinery–shows Perfume to be more than a representation of Japan's socio-economic transitions, but a live experiment in effecting these transitions. In their international performances, their bodies are synthesized in real-time from the performers' motions and the informatic layer generated from tweets and user-generated creations. This creates the conditions for fans to inscribe their own marks on to Perfume, transforming the emotional engagement between fan and idol into a technological linkage through which the idols’ bodies can be modified. Perfume’s augmented bodies are not just seen and desired, but made by their fans. The value added by this new mode of connection is imagined as the critical difference needed to transform Perfume from a local Japanese idol group into an entity capable of moving around the world, embodying the promise of a new global position for Japan enabled through information. In Perfume, augmentation suggests a possible answer to Japan’s economic stagnation and social fragmentation. It points past a longing for the past towards new values produced in encounters with the world beyond Japan. Augmentations newly connect Perfume and Japan with the world economically and culturally. At the same time, a vision of Japan emerges, more mobile, flexible, and connected perhaps, yet one that attempts to keep Japan a distinct entity in the world. Bodily augmentations, in media representations and as technological practices, do more than figuratively and materially link silicon and metal with flesh. They mark the interface of the body and technology as a site of transnational connection, where borders between the nation and what lies outside are made References Aoyagi, Hiroshi. Islands of Eight Million Smiles: Idol Performance and Symbolic Production in Contemporary Japan. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2005. Iwabuchi, Koichi. "Nostalgia for a (Different) Asian Modernity: Media Consumption of "Asia" in Japan." positions: east asia cultures critique 10.3 (2002): 547-573. Kondo, Dorinne K. Crafting Selves: Power, Gender and Discourses of Identity in a Japanese Workplace. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1990. Morning Musume. “Morning Musume ‘Love Machine’ (MV).” 15 Oct. 2010. 4 Dec. 2013 ‹http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6A7j6eryPV4›. Perfume. “[HD] Perfume Performance Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.” 20 June 2013. 11 Nov. 2013 ‹http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gI0x5vA7fLo›. ———. “[SPOT] Perfume Global Compilation “LOVE THE WORLD.”” 11 Sep. 2012. 11 Nov. 2013 ‹http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28SUmWDztxI›. ———. “Computer City.” 18 June 2013. 10 Oct. 2013 ‹http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOXGKTrsRNg›. ———. “Electro World.” 18 June 2013. 10 Oct. 2013 ‹http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zh0ouiYIZc›. ———. “Perfume no Okite.” 8 May 2011. 10 Oct. 2013 ‹http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EjOistJABM›. ———. “Perfume Official Global Website.” 2012. 11 Nov. 2013 ‹http://perfume-global.com/project.html›. ———. “Secret Secret.” 18 Jan. 2012. 10 Oct. 2013 ‹http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=birLzegOHyU›. ———. “Spring of Life.” 18 June 2013. 10 Oct. 2013 ‹http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PtvnaEo9-0›. Yano, Christine. "Charisma's Realm: Fandom in Japan." Ethnology 36.4 (1997): 335-49.

In the 2019 documentary Chasing Happiness, recording artist/musician Joe Jonas tells audiences that the band was “living the dream”. Similarly, in the 2012 documentary Artifact, lead singer Jared Leto remarks that at the height of Thirty Seconds to Mars’s success, they “were living the dream”. However, for both the Jonas Brothers and Thirty Seconds to Mars, their experiences of the music industry (much like other commercially successful recording artists) soon transformed into nightmares. Similar to other commercially successful recording artists, the Jonas Brothers and Thirty Seconds to Mars, came up against the constraints of the industry which inevitably led to a forfeiting of authenticity, a loss of creative control, increased exploitation, and unequal remuneration. This work will consider how working in the music industry is not always a dream come true and can instead be viewed as a proverbial nightmare. Living the DreamIn his book Dreams, Carl Gustav Jung discusses how that which is experienced in sleep, speaks of a person’s wishes: that which might be desired in reality but may not actually happen. In his earlier work, The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud argued that the dream is representative of fulfilling a repressed wish. However, the creative industries suggest that a dream need not be a repressed wish; it can become a reality. Jon Bon Jovi believes that his success in the music industry has surpassed his wildest dreams (Atkinson). Jennifer Lopez considers the fact that she held big dreams, had a focussed passion, and strong aspirations the reason why she pursued a creative career that took her out of the Bronx (Thomas). In a Twitter post from 23 April 2018, Bruno Mars declared that he “use [sic] to dream of this shit,” in referring to a picture of him performing for a sold out arena, while in 2019 Shawn Mendes informed his 24.4 million Twitter followers that his “life is a dream”. These are but a few examples of successful music industry artists who are seeing their ‘wishes’ come true and living the American Dream.Endemic to the American culture (and a characteristic of the identity of the country) is the “American Dream”. It centres on “a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to his ability and achievement” (Adams, 404). Although initially used to describe having a nice house, money, stability and a reasonable standard of living, the American Dream has since evolved to what the scholar Florida believes is the new ‘aspiration of people’: doing work that is enjoyable and relies on human creativity. At its core, the original American Dream required striving to meet individual goals, and was promoted as possible for anyone regardless of their cultural, socio-economic and political background (Samuel), because it encourages the celebrating of the self and personal uniqueness (Gamson). Florida’s conceptualisation of the New American dream, however, tends to emphasise obtaining success, fame and fortune in what Neff, Wissinger, and Zukin (310) consider “hot”, “creative” industries where “the jobs are cool”.Whether old or new, the American Dream has perpetuated and reinforced celebrity culture, with many of the young generation reporting that fame and fortune were their priorities, as they sought to emulate the success of their famous role models (Florida). The rag to riches stories of iconic recording artists can inevitably glorify and make appealing the struggle that permits achieving one’s dream, with celebrities offering young, aspiring creative people a means of identification for helping them to aspire to meet their dreams (Florida; Samuel). For example, a young Demi Lovato spoke of how she idolised and looked up to singer Beyonce Knowles, describing Knowles as a role model because of the way she carries herself (Tishgart). Similarly, American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson cited Aretha Franklin as her musical inspiration and the reason that she sings from a place deep within (Nilles). It is unsurprising then, that popular media has tended to portray artists working in the creative industries and being paid to follow their passions as “a much-vaunted career dream” (Duffy and Wissinger, 4656). Movies such as A Star Is Born (2018), The Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980), Dreamgirls (2006), Begin Again (2013) and La La Land (2016) exalt the perception that creativity, talent, sacrifice and determination will mean dreams come true (Nicolaou). In concert with the American dream is the drive among creative people pursuing creative success to achieve their dreams because of the perceived autonomy they will gain, the chance of self-actualisation and social rewards, and the opportunity to fulfil intrinsic motivations (Amabile; Auger and Woodman; Cohen). For these workers, the love of creation and the happiness that accompanies new discoveries (Csikszentmihalyi) can offset the tight budgets and timelines, precarious labour (Blair, Grey, and Randle; Hesmondhalgh and Baker), uncertain demand (Caves; Shultz), sacrifice of personal relationships (Eikhof and Haunschild), the demand for high quality products (Gil & Spiller), and the tense relationships with administrators (Bilton) which are known to plague these industries. In some cases, young, up and coming creative people overlook these pitfalls, instead romanticising creative careers as ideal and worthwhile. They willingly take on roles and cede control to big corporations to “realize their passions [and] uncover their personal talent” (Bill, 50). Of course, as Ursell argues in discussing television employees, such idealisation can mean creatives, especially those who are young and unfamiliar with the constraints of the industry, end up immersed in and victims of the “vampiric” industry that exploits workers (816). They are socialised towards believing, in this case, that the record label is a necessary component to obtain fame and fortune and whether willing or unwilling, creative workers become complicit in their own exploitation (Cohen). Loss of Control and No CompensationThe music industry itself has been considered by some to typify the cultural industries (Chambers). Popular music has potency in that it is perceived as speaking a universal language (Burnett), engaging the emotions and thoughts of listeners, and assisting in their identity construction (Burnett; Gardikiotis and Baltzis). Given the place of music within society, it is not surprising that in 2018, the global music industry was worth US$19.1billion (IFPI). The music industry is necessarily underpinned by a commercial agenda. At present, six major recording companies exist and between them, they own between 70-80 per cent of the recordings produced globally (Konsor). They also act as gatekeepers, setting trends by defining what and who is worth following and listening to (Csikszentmihalyi; Jones, Anand, and Alvarez). In essence, to be successful in the music industry is to be affiliated with a record label. This is because the highly competitive nature and cluttered environment makes it harder to gain traction in the market without worthwhile representation (Moiso and Rockman). In the 2012 documentary about Thirty Seconds to Mars, Artifact, front man Jared Leto even questions whether it is possible to have “success without a label”. The recording company, he determines, “deal with the crappy jobs”. In a financially uncertain industry that makes money from subjective or experience-based goods (Caves), having a label affords an artist access to “economic capital for production and promotion” that enables “wider recognition” of creative work (Scott, 239). With the support of a record label, creative entrepreneurs are given the chance to be promoted and distributed in the creative marketplace (Scott; Shultz). To have a record label, then, is to be perceived as legitimate and credible (Shultz).However, the commercial music industry is just that, commercial. Accordingly, the desire to make money can see the intrinsic desires of musicians forfeited in favour of standardised products and a lack of remuneration for artists (Negus). To see this standardisation in practice, one need not look further than those contestants appearing on shows such as American Idol or The Voice. Nowhere is the standardisation of the music industry more evident than in Holmes’s 2004 article on Pop Idol. Pop Idol first aired in Britain from 2001-2003 and paved the way for a slew of similar shows around the world such as Australia’s Popstars Live in 2004 and the global Idol phenomena. According to Holmes, audiences are divested of the illusion of talent and stardom when they witness the obvious manufacturing of musical talent. The contestants receive training, are dressed according to a prescribed image, and the show emphasises those melodramatic moments that are commercially enticing to audiences. Her sentiments suggest these shows emphasise the artifice of the music industry by undermining artistic authenticity in favour of generating celebrities. The standardisation is typified in the post Idol careers of Kelly Clarkson and Adam Lambert. Kelly Clarkson parted with the recording company RCA when her manager and producer Clive Davis told her that her album My December (2007) was “not commercial enough” and that Clarkson, who had written most of the songs, was a “shitty writer… who should just shut up and sing” (Nied). Adam Lambert left RCA because they wanted him to make a full length 80s album comprised of covers. Lambert commented that, “while there are lots of great songs from that decade, my heart is simply not in doing a covers album” (Lee). In these instances, winning the show and signing contracts led to both Clarkson and Lambert forfeiting a degree of creative control over their work in favour of formulaic songs that ultimately left both artists unsatisfied. The standardisation and lack of remuneration is notable when signing recording artists to 360° contracts. These 360° contracts have become commonplace in the music industry (Gulchardaz, Bach, and Penin) and see both the material and immaterial labour (such as personal identities) of recording artists become controlled by record labels (Stahl and Meier). These labels determine the aesthetics of the musicians as well as where and how frequently they tour. Furthermore, the labels become owners of any intellectual property generated by an artist during the tenure of the contract (Sanders; Stahl and Meier). For example, in their documentary Show Em What You’re Made Of (2015), the Backstreet Boys lament their affiliation with manager Lou Pearlman. Not only did Pearlman manufacture the group in a way that prevented creative exploration by the members (Sanders), but he withheld profits to the point that the Backstreet Boys had to sue Pearlman in order to gain access to money they deserved. In 2002 the members of the Backstreet Boys had stated that “it wasn’t our destinies that we had to worry about in the past, it was our souls” (Sanders, 541). They were not writing their own music, which came across in the documentary Show Em What You’re Made Of when singer Howie Dorough demanded that if they were to collaborate as a group again in 2013, that everything was to be produced, managed and created by the five group members. Such a demand speaks to creative individuals being tied to their work both personally and emotionally (Bain). The angst encountered by music artists also signals the identity dissonance and conflict felt when they are betraying their true or authentic creative selves (Ashforth and Mael; Ashforth and Humphrey). Performing and abiding by the rules and regulations of others led to frustration because the members felt they were “being passed off as something we aren’t” (Sanders 539). The Backstreet Boys were not the only musicians who were intensely controlled and not adequately compensated by Pearlman. In the documentary The Boy Band Con: The Lou Pearlman Story 2019, Lance Bass of N*Sync and recording artist Aaron Carter admitted that the experience of working with Pearlman became a nightmare when they too, were receiving cheques that were so small that Bass describes them as making his heart sink. For these groups, the dream of making music was undone by contracts that stifled creativity and paid a pittance.In a similar vein, Thirty Seconds to Mars sought to cut ties with their record label when they felt that they were not being adequately compensated for their work. In retaliation EMI issued Mars with a US$30 million lawsuit for breach of contract. The tense renegotiations that followed took a toll on the creative drive of the group. At one point in the documentary Artifact (2012), Leto claims “I can’t sing it right now… You couldn’t pay me all the money in the world to sing this song the way it needs to be sung right now. I’m not ready”. The contract subordination (Phillips; Stahl and Meier) that had led to the need to renegotiate financial terms came at not only a financial cost to the band, but also a physical and emotional one. The negativity impacted the development of the songs for the new album. To make music requires evoking necessary and appropriate emotions in the recording studio (Wood, Duffy, and Smith), so Leto being unable to deliver the song proved problematic. Essentially, the stress of the lawsuit and negotiations damaged the motivation of the band (Amabile; Elsbach and Hargadon; Hallowell) and interfered with their creative approach, which could have produced standardised and poor quality work (Farr and Ford). The dream of making music was almost lost because of the EMI lawsuit. Young creatives often lack bargaining power when entering into contracts with corporations, which can prove disadvantaging when it comes to retaining control over their lives (Phillips; Stahl and Meier). Singer Demi Lovato’s big break came in the 2008 Disney film Camp Rock. As her then manager Phil McIntyre states in the documentary Simply Complicated (2017), Camp Rock was “perceived as the vehicle to becoming a superstar … overnight she became a household name”. However, as “authentic and believable” as Lovato’s edginess appeared, the speed with which her success came took a toll on Lovato. The pressure she experienced having to tour, write songs that were approved by others, star in Disney channel shows and movies, and look a certain way, became too much and to compensate, Lovato engaged in regular drug use to feel free. Accordingly, she developed a hybrid identity to ensure that the squeaky clean image required by the moral clauses of her contract, was not tarnished by her out-of-control lifestyle. The nightmare came from becoming famous at a young age and not being able to handle the expectations that accompanied it, coupled with a stringent contract that exploited her creative talent. Lovato’s is not a unique story. Research has found that musicians are more inclined than those in other workforces to use psychotherapy and psychotropic drugs (Vaag, Bjørngaard, and Bjerkeset) and that fame and money can provide musicians more opportunities to take risks, including drug-use that leads to mortality (Bellis, Hughes, Sharples, Hennell, and Hardcastle). For Lovato, living the dream at a young age ultimately became overwhelming with drugs her only means of escape. AuthenticityThe challenges then for music artists is that the dream of pursuing music can come at the cost of a musician’s authentic self. According to Hughes, “to be authentic is to be in some sense real and true to something ... It is not simply an imitation, but it is sincere, real, true, and original expression of its creator, and is believable or credible representations or example of what it appears to be” (190). For Nick Jonas of the Jonas Brothers, being in the spotlight and abiding by the demands of Disney was “non-stop” and prevented his personal and musical growth (Chasing Happiness). As Kevin Jonas put it, Nick “wanted the Jonas Brothers to be no more”. The extensive promotion that accompanies success and fame, which is designed to drive celebrity culture and financial motivations (Currid-Halkett and Scott; King), can lead to cynical performances and dissatisfaction (Hughes) if the identity work of the creative creates a disjoin between their perceived self and aspirational self (Beech, Gilmore, Cochrane, and Greig). Promoting the band (and having to film a television show and movies he was not invested in all because of contractual obligations) impacted on Nick’s authentic self to the point that the Jonas Brothers made him feel deeply upset and anxious. For Nick, being stifled creatively led to feeling inauthentic, thereby resulting in the demise of the band as his only recourse.In her documentary Gaga: Five Foot Two (2017), Lady Gaga discusses the extent she had to go to maintain a sense of authenticity in response to producer control. As she puts it, “when producers wanted me to be sexy, I always put some absurd spin on it, that made me feel like I was still in control”. Her words reaffirm the perception amongst scholars (Currid-Halkett and Scott; King; Meyers) that in playing the information game, industry leaders will construct an artist’s persona in ways that are most beneficial for, in this case, the record label. That will mean, for example, establishing a coherent life story for musicians that endears them to audiences and engaging recording artists in co-branding opportunities to raise their profile and to legitimise them in the marketplace. Such behaviour can potentially influence the preferences and purchases of audiences and fans, can create favourability, originality and clarity around artists (Loroz and Braig), and can establish competitive advantage that leads to producers being able to charge higher prices for the artists’ work (Hernando and Campo). But what impact does that have on the musician? Lady Gaga could not continue living someone else’s dream. She found herself needing to make changes in order to avoid quitting music altogether. As Gaga told a class of university students at the Emotion Revolution Summit hosted by Yale University:I don’t like being used to make people money. It feels sad when I am overworked and that I have just become a money-making machine and that my passion and creativity take a backseat. That makes me unhappy.According to Eikof and Haunschild, economic necessity can threaten creative motivation. Gaga’s reaction to the commercial demands of the music industry signal an identity conflict because her desire to create, clashed with the need to be commercial, with the outcome imposing “inconsistent demands upon” her (Ashforth and Mael, 29). Therefore, to reduce what could be considered feelings of dissonance and inconsistency (Ashforth and Mael; Ashforth and Humphrey) Gaga started saying “no” to prevent further loss of her identity and sense of authentic self. Taking back control could be seen as a means of reorienting her dream and overcoming what had become dissatisfaction with the commercial processes of the music industry. ConclusionsFor many creatives working in the creative industries – and specifically the music industry – is constructed as a dream come true; the working conditions and expectations experienced by recording artists are far from liberating and instead can become nightmares to which they want to escape. The case studies above, although likely ‘constructed’ retellings of the unfortunate circumstances encountered working in the music industry, nevertheless offer an inside account that contradicts the prevailing ideology that pursuing creative passions leads to a dream career (Florida; Samuel). If anything, the case studies explored above involving 30 Seconds to Mars, the Jonas Brothers, Lady Gaga, Kelly Clarkson, Adam Lambert and the Backstreet Boys, acknowledge what many scholars writing in the creative industries have already identified; that exploitation, subordination, identity conflict and loss of control are the unspoken or lesser known consequences of pursuing the creative dream. That said, the conundrum for creatives is that for success in the industry big “creative” businesses, such as recording labels, are still considered necessary in order to break into the market and to have prolonged success. This is simply because their resources far exceed those at the disposal of independent and up-and-coming creative entrepreneurs. Therefore, it can be argued that this friction of need between creative industry business versus artists will be on-going leading to more of these ‘dream to nightmare’ stories. The struggle will continue manifesting in the relationship between business and artist for long as the recording artists fight for greater equality, independence of creativity and respect for their work, image and identities. 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Since its return in 2005 the science fiction series Doctor Who (BBC1) has featured many alien creatures which bear a striking similarity to non-human Earth species: the Judoon in “Smith and Jones” (2007) have heads like rhinoceroses; the nurses in “New Earth” (2006) are cats in wimples; the Tritovores in “Planet of the Dead” (2009) are giant flies in boilersuits. Yet only one non-human animal has appeared twice in the series, in unrelated stories: the pig. Furthermore, alien races such as the Judoon and the Tritovores simply happen to look like human species, and the series offers no narrative explanation as to why such similarities exist. When the pig has appeared, however, it has instead been as the consequence of experimentation and mutation, and in both cases the appearance of such porcine hybrids is signalled as horrific, unsettling and, in the end, to be pitied. The fact that the pig has appeared in this way twice suggests there is something about the human understanding of this animal which means it can fulfil a role in fiction unavailable to other Earth species. The pig’s appearance has been in two stories, both two-parters. In “Aliens of London”/“World War Three” (2005) a spaceship crashes into London’s Thames river, and the pilot inside, thought to be dead, is sent to be scientifically examined. Alone in the laboratory, the pathologist Doctor Sato is startled to find the creature is alive and, during its attempt to escape, it is shot by the military. When the creature is examined The Doctor reveals it is “an ordinary pig, from Earth.” He goes on to explain that, “someone’s taken a pig, opened up its brain, stuck bits on, then they’ve strapped it in that ship and made it dive-bomb. It must have been terrified. They’ve taken this animal and turned it into a joke.” The Doctor’s concern over the treatment of the pig mirrors his earlier reprimand of the military for shooting it; as he cradles the dying creature he shouts at the soldier responsible, “What did you do that for? It was scared! It was scared.” On the commentary track for the DVD release of this episode Julie Gardner (executive producer) and Will Cohen (visual effects producer) note how so many people told them they had a significant emotional reaction to this scene, with Gardner adding, “Bless the pig.” In that sense, what begins as a moment of horror in the series becomes one of empathy with a non-human being, and the pig moves from being a creature of terror to one whose death is seen to be an immoral act. This movement from horror to empathy can be seen in the pig’s other appearance, in “Daleks in Manhattan”/“Evolution of the Daleks” (2007). Here the alien Daleks experiment on humans in order to develop the ability to meld themselves with Earthlings, in order to repopulate their own dwindling numbers. Humans are captured and then tested; as Laszlo, one of the outcomes of the experimentation, explains, “They’re divided into two groups: high intelligence and low intelligence. The low intelligence are taken to becomes Pig Slaves, like me.” These Pig Slaves look and move like humans except for their faces, which have prolonged ears and the pig signifier of a snout. At no point in the story is it made clear why experimentations on low intelligence humans should result in them looking like pigs, and a non-hybrid pig is not seen throughout the story. The appearance of the experiments’ results is therefore not narratively explained, and it does not draw on the fact that “in digestive apparatus and nutrient requirements pigs resemble humans in more ways than any mammal except monkeys and apes, which is why pigs are much in demand for [human] medical research” (Harris 70); indeed, considering the story is set in the 1930s such a justification would be anachronistic. The use of the pig, therefore, draws solely on its cultural, not its scientific, associations. These associations are complex, and the pig has been used to connote many things in Western culture. Children’s books such as The Sheep-Pig (King-Smith) and Charlotte’s Web (White) suggest the close proximity of humans and pigs can result in an affinity capable of communication. The use of pigs to represent Poles in Maus: A Survivor’s Tale (Spiegelman), on the other hand, has been read as offensive, drawing on the animal’s association with dirt and greed (Weschler). These depictions are informed by debates about pigs in the real world, whereby an animal which, as mentioned above, is similar enough to humans to be useful in medical research can also, for the food industry, go through a slaughtering process described by Bob Torres as “horribly cruel” (47). Such cruelty can only be justified if the boundaries between the pig and the human are maintained, and this is why pig-human representations are capable of being shocking and horrific. The hybrid nature of the human-pig creature draws on the horror trope that Noël Carroll refers to as “fusion” which works because it “unites attributes held to be categorically distinct” such as “inside/outside, living/dead, insect/human, flesh/machine” (43). He explains that this is why characters in horror narratives do not find such creatures simply fearful, but also “repellent, loathsome, disgusting, repulsive and impure” (54); their failure to conform to accepted cultural categories destabilises assumed norms and, perhaps most horrifically, undermines ‘the human’ as a stable, natural and superior category. As Donna Haraway notes, “‘The species’ often means the human race, unless one is attuned to science fiction, where species abound” (18). Science fiction therefore commonly plays with ideas of species because it is often interested in “the image of the scientist ‘playing god’” (Jones 51) and the horrific outcomes of “the total severing of scientific concerns from ethical concerns” (53). That the result of human/non-human experimentation should be regarded as horrific is evidence of the need to maintain the distinctions between humans and other creatures; after all, a pig/human can only be thought of as horrific if it as assumed that there is something unnatural about the destabilisation of the human category. And it is precisely the human which matters in this equation; it is not really as if anyone cares about the pig’s categorical stability in all of this. In both these stories, the appearance of the pig-creature is narratively structured to be surprising and shocking, and is withheld from the audience for as long as possible. The first appearance of a Pig Slave in “Daleks in Manhattan” constitutes that episode’s pre-credits cliff-hanger, with the creature appearing out of the shadows and bearing down upon the camera, directly towards the audience viewing at home. At this point, the audience has no idea why such a creature exists; the meaning of the pig-human hybrid is contained purely in its visual appearance, with the horrific fact of its contradictory appearance perhaps drawing on the pig’s historical association with evil and the Devil (Sillar and Meyler 82). Similarly, in “Aliens of London” we see Sato’s shocked reaction to the pig far earlier than we actually see the creature ourselves, and Sato’s scream is clearly intended to construct what we have yet to encounter as horrific. The Doctor’s search for the creature is similarly signalled, as he roams dimly-lit corridors trying to find it, following the trail of the grunts and noises that it makes. That the pig might constitute a horrific—or at least unsettling—site for humans is unsurprising considering the cultural roles it has often played. There is, after all, an “opposition between civilization and piggishness” (Ashley, Hollows, Jones and Taylor 2) in which (incorrect) assumptions about pigs’ filthy behaviour helps mark out humanity’s cleaner and more civilised way of living. While this is true of all human/non-human interactions, it is argued that the pig occupies a particular role within this system as it is a “familiar beast” (4) because for centuries it has been a domesticated animal which has often lived alongside humans, usually in quite close proximity. In that sense, humans and pigs are very similar. Demarcating the human as a stable and natural “conceptual category ... in which we place all members of our own species and from which we exclude all non-members” (Milton 265-66) has therefore required the denigration of non-humans, at least partly to justify the dominion humans have decided they have the right to hold over other creatures such as pigs. The difficulties in maintaining this demarcation can be seen in the documentary The Private Life of Pigs (BBC2 2010) in which the farmer Jimmy Docherty carries out a number of tests on animals in order to better understand the ‘inner life’ of the pig. Docherty acknowledges the pig’s similarity to humans in his introductory piece to camera; “When you look in their piggy little eyes with their piggy little eyelashes you see something that reflects back to you—I don’t know—it makes you feel there’s a person looking back.” However, this is quickly followed by a statement which works to reassert the human/non-human boundary; “I know we have this close relationship [with pigs], but I’m often reminded that just beneath the surface of their skin, they’re a wild animal.” Perhaps the most telling revelation in the programme is that pigs have been found to make certain grunting noises only when humans are around, which suggests they have developed a language for ‘interacting’ with humans. That Docherty is uncomfortably startled by this piece of information shows how the idea of communication troubles ideas of human superiority, and places pigs within a sphere hitherto maintained as strictly human. Of course, humans often willingly share domestic spaces with other species, but these are usually categorised as pets. The pet exists “somewhere between the wild animal and the human” (Fudge 8), and we often invest them with a range of human characteristics and develop relationships with such animals which are similar, but not identical, to those we have with other humans. The pig, however, like other food animals, cannot occupy the role afforded to the pet because it is culturally unacceptable to eat pets. In order to legitimise the treatment of the pig as a “strictly utilitarian object; a thing for producing meat and bacon” (Serpell 7) it must be distinguished from the human realm as clearly as possible. It is worth noting, though, that this is a culturally-specific process; Dwyer and Minnegal, for example, show how in New Guinea “pigs commonly play a crucial role in ceremonial and spiritual life” (37-8), and the pig is therefore simultaneously a wild animal, a source of food, and a species with which humans have an “attachment” (45-54) akin to the idea of a pet. Western societies commonly (though not completely) have difficulty uniting this range of animal categories, and analogous ideas of “civilization” often rest on assumptions about animals which require them to play specific, non-human roles. That homo sapiens define their humanity in terms of civilization is demonstrated by the ways in which ideas of brutality, violence and savagery are displaced onto other species, often quite at odds with the truth of such species’ behaviour. The assumption that non-human species are violent, and constitute a threat, is shown in Doctor Who; the pig is shot in “Aliens of London” for assumed security reasons (despite it having done nothing to suggest it is a threat), while humans run in fear from the Pig Slaves in “Evolution of the Daleks” purely because of their non-human appearance. Mary Midgley refers to this as “the Beast Myth” (38) by which humans not only reduce other species to nothing other than “incarnations of wickedness, … sets of basic needs, … crude mechanical toys, … [and] idiot children” (38), but also lump all non-human species together thereby ignoring the specificity of any particular species. Midgley also argues that “man shows more savagery to his own kind than most other mammal species” (27, emphasis in original), citing the need for “law or morality to restrain violence” (26) as evidence of the social structures required to uphold a myth of human civilization. In that sense, the use of pigs in Doctor Who can be seen as conforming to centuries-old depictions of non-human species, by which the loss of humanity symbolised by other species can be seen as the ultimate punishment. After all, when the Daleks’ human helper, Mr Diagoras, fears that the aliens are going to experiment on him, he fearfully exclaims, “What do you mean? Like those pig-men things? You’re not going to turn me into one of those? Oh, God, please don’t!” In the next episode, when all the Pig Slaves are killed by the actions of the Doctor’s companion Martha, she regrets her actions, only to be told, “No. The Daleks killed them. Long ago”, for their mutation into a ‘pig-man thing’ is seen to be a more significant loss of humanity than death itself. The scene highlights how societies are often “confused about the status of such interspecies beings” (Savulescu 25). Such confusion is likely to recur considering we are moving into a “posthumanist” age defined by the “decentering of the human” (Wolfe xv), whereby critiques of traditional cultural categories, alongside scientific developments that question the biological certainty of the human, result in difficulties in defining precisely what it is that is supposedly so special about homo sapiens. This means that it is far too easy to write off these depictions in Doctor Who as merely drawing on, and upholding, those simplistic and naturalised human/non-human distinctions which have been criticised, in a manner similar to sexism and racism, as “speciesist” (Singer 148-62). There is, after all, consistent sympathy for the pig in these episodes. The shooting of the pig in “Aliens of London” is outrageous not merely because it gives evidence of the propensity of human violence: the death of the pig itself is presented as worth mourning, in a manner similar to the death of any living being. Throughout the series the Doctor is concerned over the loss of life for any species, always aiming to find a non-violent method for solving conflicts and repeatedly berating other characters who resort to bloodshed for solutions. Indeed, the story’s narrative can be read as one in which the audience is invited to reassess its own response to the pig’s initial appearance, shifting from fear at its alien-ness to sympathy for its demise. This complication of the cultural meanings of pigs is taken even further in the two-part Dalek story. One of the key plots of the story is the relationship between Laszlo, who has been transmuted into a Pig Slave, and his former lover Tallulah. Tallulah spends much of the story thinking Laszlo has disappeared, when he has, in fact, gone into hiding, certain that she will reject him because of his post-experimentation porcine features. When they finally reunite, Laszlo apologises for what has happened to him, while Tallulah asks, “Laszlo? My Laszlo? What have they done to you?” At the end of the story they decide to try re-establishing their relationship, despite Laszlo’s now-complicated genetic make-up. In response to this Martha asks the Doctor, “Do you reckon it’s going to work, those two?” The Doctor responds that while such an odd pairing might be problematic pretty much anywhere else, as they were in New York they might just get away with it. He reflects, “That’s what this city’s good at. Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, and maybe the odd Pig Slave Dalek mutant hybrid too.” While there is an obvious playfulness to this scene, with the programme foregrounding the kinds of narrative available to the science fiction genre, it is also clear that we are invited to find this a good narrative conclusion, a suitable resolution to all that has preceded it. In that sense, the pig and the human come together, dissolving the human/non-human divide at a stroke, and this is offered to the audience as something to be pleased about. In both narratives, then, the pig moves from being understood as alien and threatening to something if not quite identical to human, then certainly akin to it. Certainly, the narratives suggest that the lives, loves and concerns of pigs—even if they have been experimented upon—matter, and can constitute significant emotional moments in primetime mainstream family television. This development is a result of the text’s movement from an interest in the appearance of the pig to its status as a living being. As noted above, the initial appearances of the pigs in both stories is intended to be frightening, but such terror is dependent on understanding non-human species by their appearance alone. What both of these stories manage to do is suggest that the pig—like all non-human living things, whether of Earth or not—is more than its physical appearance, and via acknowledgment of its own consciousness, and its own sense of identity, can become something with which humans are capable of having sympathy; perhaps more than that, that the pig is something with which humans should have sympathy, for to deny the interior life of such a species is to engage in an inhuman act in itself. This could be seen as an interesting—if admittedly marginal—corrective to the centuries of cultural and physical abuse the pig, like all animals, has suffered. Such representations can be seen as evoking “the dreaded comparison” (Spiegel) which aligns maltreatment of animals with slavery, a comparison that is dreaded by societies because to acknowledge such parallels makes justifying humans’ abusive treatment of other species very difficult. These two Doctor Who stories repeatedly make such comparisons, and assume that to morally and emotionally distinguish between living beings based on categories of species is nonsensical, immoral, and fails to acknowledge the significance and majesty of all forms of life. That we might, as Gardner suggests, “Bless the pig”—whether it has had its brain stuffed full of wires or been merged with a human—points towards complex notions of human/non-human interaction which might helpfully destabilise simplistic ideas of the superiority of the human race. References Ashley, Bob, Joanne Hollows, Steve Jones and Ben Taylor. Food and Cultural Studies. London and New York: Routledge, 2004. Carroll, Noël. The Philosophy of Horror, or, Paradoxes of the Heart. New York and London: Routledge, 1990. Dwyer, Peter D. and Monica Minnegal. “Person, Place or Pig: Animal Attachments and Human Transactions in New Guinea.” Animals in Person: Cultural Perspectives on Human-Animal Intimacies. Ed. John Knight. Oxford and New York: Berg, 2005. 37-60. Fudge, Erica. Pets. Stocksfield: Acumen, 2008. Haraway, Donna J. When Species Meet. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 2008. Harris, Marvin. “The Abominable Pig.” Food and Culture: A Reader. Ed. Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik. New York and London: Routledge, 1997. 67-79. Jones, Darryl. Horror: A Thematic History in Fiction and Film. London: Arnold, 2002. King-Smith, Dick. The Sheep-Pig. London: Puffin, 1983. Midgley, Mary. Beast and Man. London and New York: Routledge, 1979/2002. Milton, Kay. “Anthropomorphism or Egomorphism? The Perception of Non-Human Persons by Human Ones.” Animals in Person: Cultural Perspectives on Human-Animal Intimacies. Ed. John Knight. Oxford and New York: Berg, 2005. 255-71. Savulescu, Julian. “Human-Animal Transgenesis and Chimeras Might be an Expression of our Humanity.” The American Journal of Bioethics 3.3 (2003): 22-5. Serpell, James. In the Company of Animals: A Study of Human-Animal Relationships. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Sillar, Frederick Cameron and Ruth Mary Meyler. The Symbolic Pig: An Anthology of Pigs in Literature and Art. Edinburgh and London: Oliver and Boyd, 1961. Singer, Peter. “All Animals are Equal.” Animal Rights and Human Obligations. Ed. Tom Regan and Peter Singer. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1989. 148-62. Spiegel, Marjorie. The Dreaded Comparison: Human and Animal Slavery. London and Philadelphia: Heretic Books, 1988. Speigelman, Art. Maus: A Survivor’s Tale. New York: Pantheon Books, 1986/1991. Torres, Bob. Making a Killing: The Political Economy of Animal Rights. Edinburgh, Oakland and West Virginia: AK Press, 2007. Weschler, Lawrence. “Pig Perplex.” Lingua France: The Review of Academic Life 11.5 (2001): 6-8. White, E.B. Charlotte’s Web. London: Harper Collins, 1952. Wolfe, Cary. What is Posthumanism? Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 2010.

“As the old technologies become automatic and invisible, we find ourselves more concerned with fighting or embracing what’s new”—Dennis Baron, From Pencils to Pixels: The Stage of Literacy Technologies What constitutes a computer, as we have come to expect it? Are they necessarily monolithic “beige boxes”, connected to computer monitors, sitting on computer desks, located in computer rooms or computer labs? In order for a device to be considered a true computer, does it need to have a keyboard and mouse? If this were 1991 or earlier, our collective perception of what computers are and are not would largely be framed by this “beige box” model: computers are stationary, slab-like, and heavy, and their natural habitats must be in rooms specifically designated for that purpose. In 1992, when Apple introduced the first PowerBook, our perception began to change. Certainly there had been other portable computers prior to that, such as the Osborne 1, but these were more luggable than portable, weighing just slightly less than a typical sewing machine. The PowerBook and subsequent waves of laptops, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and so-called smart phones from numerous other companies have steadily forced us to rethink and redefine what a computer is and is not, how we interact with them, and the manner in which these tools might be used in the classroom. However, this reconceptualization of computers is far from over, and is in fact steadily evolving as new devices are introduced, adopted, and subsequently adapted for uses beyond of their original purpose. Pat Crowe’s Book Reader project, for example, has morphed Nintendo’s GameBoy and GameBoy Advance into a viable electronic book platform, complete with images, sound, and multi-language support. (Crowe, 2003) His goal was to take this existing technology previously framed only within the context of proprietary adolescent entertainment, and repurpose it for open, flexible uses typically associated with learning and literacy. Similar efforts are underway to repurpose Microsoft’s Xbox, perhaps the ultimate symbol of “closed” technology given Microsoft’s propensity for proprietary code, in order to make it a viable platform for Open Source Software (OSS). However, these efforts are not forgone conclusions, and are in fact typical of the ongoing battle over who controls the technology we own in our homes, and how open source solutions are often at odds with a largely proprietary world. In late 2001, Microsoft launched the Xbox with a multimillion dollar publicity drive featuring events, commercials, live models, and statements claiming this new console gaming platform would “change video games the way MTV changed music”. (Chan, 2001) The Xbox launched with the following technical specifications: 733mhz Pentium III 64mb RAM, 8 or 10gb internal hard disk drive CD/DVD ROM drive (speed unknown) Nvidia graphics processor, with HDTV support 4 USB 1.1 ports (adapter required), AC3 audio 10/100 ethernet port, Optional 56k modem (TechTV, 2001) While current computers dwarf these specifications in virtually all areas now, for 2001 these were roughly on par with many desktop systems. The retail price at the time was $299, but steadily dropped to nearly half that with additional price cuts anticipated. Based on these features, the preponderance of “off the shelf” parts and components used, and the relatively reasonable price, numerous programmers quickly became interested in seeing it if was possible to run Linux and additional OSS on the Xbox. In each case, the goal has been similar: exceed the original purpose of the Xbox, to determine if and how well it might be used for basic computing tasks. If these attempts prove to be successful, the Xbox could allow institutions to dramatically increase the student-to-computer ratio in select environments, or allow individuals who could not otherwise afford a computer to instead buy and Xbox, download and install Linux, and use this new device to write, create, and innovate . This drive to literally and metaphorically “open” the Xbox comes from many directions. Such efforts include Andrew Huang’s self-published “Hacking the Xbox” book in which, under the auspices of reverse engineering, Huang analyzes the architecture of the Xbox, detailing step-by-step instructions for flashing the ROM, upgrading the hard drive and/or RAM, and generally prepping the device for use as an information appliance. Additional initiatives include Lindows CEO Michael Robertson’s $200,000 prize to encourage Linux development on the Xbox, and the Xbox Linux Project at SourceForge. What is Linux? Linux is an alternative operating system initially developed in 1991 by Linus Benedict Torvalds. Linux was based off a derivative of the MINIX operating system, which in turn was a derivative of UNIX. (Hasan 2003) Linux is currently available for Intel-based systems that would normally run versions of Windows, PowerPC-based systems that would normally run Apple’s Mac OS, and a host of other handheld, cell phone, or so-called “embedded” systems. Linux distributions are based almost exclusively on open source software, graphic user interfaces, and middleware components. While there are commercial Linux distributions available, these mainly just package the freely available operating system with bundled technical support, manuals, some exclusive or proprietary commercial applications, and related services. Anyone can still download and install numerous Linux distributions at no cost, provided they do not need technical support beyond the community / enthusiast level. Typical Linux distributions come with open source web browsers, word processors and related productivity applications (such as those found in OpenOffice.org), and related tools for accessing email, organizing schedules and contacts, etc. Certain Linux distributions are more or less designed for network administrators, system engineers, and similar “power users” somewhat distanced from that of our students. However, several distributions including Lycoris, Mandrake, LindowsOS, and other are specifically tailored as regular, desktop operating systems, with regular, everyday computer users in mind. As Linux has no draconian “product activation key” method of authentication, or digital rights management-laden features associated with installation and implementation on typical desktop and laptop systems, Linux is becoming an ideal choice both individually and institutionally. It still faces an uphill battle in terms of achieving widespread acceptance as a desktop operating system. As Finnie points out in Desktop Linux Edges Into The Mainstream: “to attract users, you need ease of installation, ease of device configuration, and intuitive, full-featured desktop user controls. It’s all coming, but slowly. With each new version, desktop Linux comes closer to entering the mainstream. It’s anyone’s guess as to when critical mass will be reached, but you can feel the inevitability: There’s pent-up demand for something different.” (Finnie 2003) Linux is already spreading rapidly in numerous capacities, in numerous countries. Linux has “taken hold wherever computer users desire freedom, and wherever there is demand for inexpensive software.” Reports from technology research company IDG indicate that roughly a third of computers in Central and South America run Linux. Several countries, including Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina, have all but mandated that state-owned institutions adopt open source software whenever possible to “give their people the tools and education to compete with the rest of the world.” (Hills 2001) The Goal Less than a year after Microsoft introduced the The Xbox, the Xbox Linux project formed. The Xbox Linux Project has a goal of developing and distributing Linux for the Xbox gaming console, “so that it can be used for many tasks that Microsoft don’t want you to be able to do. ...as a desktop computer, for email and browsing the web from your TV, as a (web) server” (Xbox Linux Project 2002). Since the Linux operating system is open source, meaning it can freely be tinkered with and distributed, those who opt to download and install Linux on their Xbox can do so with relatively little overhead in terms of cost or time. Additionally, Linux itself looks very “windows-like”, making for fairly low learning curve. To help increase overall awareness of this project and assist in diffusing it, the Xbox Linux Project offers step-by-step installation instructions, with the end result being a system capable of using common peripherals such as a keyboard and mouse, scanner, printer, a “webcam and a DVD burner, connected to a VGA monitor; 100% compatible with a standard Linux PC, all PC (USB) hardware and PC software that works with Linux.” (Xbox Linux Project 2002) Such a system could have tremendous potential for technology literacy. Pairing an Xbox with Linux and OpenOffice.org, for example, would provide our students essentially the same capability any of them would expect from a regular desktop computer. They could send and receive email, communicate using instant messaging IRC, or newsgroup clients, and browse Internet sites just as they normally would. In fact, the overall browsing experience for Linux users is substantially better than that for most Windows users. Internet Explorer, the default browser on all systems running Windows-base operating systems, lacks basic features standard in virtually all competing browsers. Native blocking of “pop-up” advertisements is still not yet possible in Internet Explorer without the aid of a third-party utility. Tabbed browsing, which involves the ability to easily open and sort through multiple Web pages in the same window, often with a single mouse click, is also missing from Internet Explorer. The same can be said for a robust download manager, “find as you type”, and a variety of additional features. Mozilla, Netscape, Firefox, Konqueror, and essentially all other OSS browsers for Linux have these features. Of course, most of these browsers are also available for Windows, but Internet Explorer is still considered the standard browser for the platform. If the Xbox Linux Project becomes widely diffused, our students could edit and save Microsoft Word files in OpenOffice.org’s Writer program, and do the same with PowerPoint and Excel files in similar OpenOffice.org components. They could access instructor comments originally created in Microsoft Word documents, and in turn could add their own comments and send the documents back to their instructors. They could even perform many functions not yet capable in Microsoft Office, including saving files in PDF or Flash format without needing Adobe’s Acrobat product or Macromedia’s Flash Studio MX. Additionally, by way of this project, the Xbox can also serve as “a Linux server for HTTP/FTP/SMB/NFS, serving data such as MP3/MPEG4/DivX, or a router, or both; without a monitor or keyboard or mouse connected.” (Xbox Linux Project 2003) In a very real sense, our students could use these inexpensive systems previously framed only within the context of entertainment, for educational purposes typically associated with computer-mediated learning. Problems: Control and Access The existing rhetoric of technological control surrounding current and emerging technologies appears to be stifling many of these efforts before they can even be brought to the public. This rhetoric of control is largely typified by overly-restrictive digital rights management (DRM) schemes antithetical to education, and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Combined,both are currently being used as technical and legal clubs against these efforts. Microsoft, for example, has taken a dim view of any efforts to adapt the Xbox to Linux. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who has repeatedly referred to Linux as a cancer and has equated OSS as being un-American, stated, “Given the way the economic model works - and that is a subsidy followed, essentially, by fees for every piece of software sold - our license framework has to do that.” (Becker 2003) Since the Xbox is based on a subsidy model, meaning that Microsoft actually sells the hardware at a loss and instead generates revenue off software sales, Ballmer launched a series of concerted legal attacks against the Xbox Linux Project and similar efforts. In 2002, Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft simultaneously sued Lik Sang, Inc., a Hong Kong-based company that produces programmable cartridges and “mod chips” for the PlayStation II, Xbox, and Game Cube. Nintendo states that its company alone loses over $650 million each year due to piracy of their console gaming titles, which typically originate in China, Paraguay, and Mexico. (GameIndustry.biz) Currently, many attempts to “mod” the Xbox required the use of such chips. As Lik Sang is one of the only suppliers, initial efforts to adapt the Xbox to Linux slowed considerably. Despite that fact that such chips can still be ordered and shipped here by less conventional means, it does not change that fact that the chips themselves would be illegal in the U.S. due to the anticircumvention clause in the DMCA itself, which is designed specifically to protect any DRM-wrapped content, regardless of context. The Xbox Linux Project then attempted to get Microsoft to officially sanction their efforts. They were not only rebuffed, but Microsoft then opted to hire programmers specifically to create technological countermeasures for the Xbox, to defeat additional attempts at installing OSS on it. Undeterred, the Xbox Linux Project eventually arrived at a method of installing and booting Linux without the use of mod chips, and have taken a more defiant tone now with Microsoft regarding their circumvention efforts. (Lettice 2002) They state that “Microsoft does not want you to use the Xbox as a Linux computer, therefore it has some anti-Linux-protection built in, but it can be circumvented easily, so that an Xbox can be used as what it is: an IBM PC.” (Xbox Linux Project 2003) Problems: Learning Curves and Usability In spite of the difficulties imposed by the combined technological and legal attacks on this project, it has succeeded at infiltrating this closed system with OSS. It has done so beyond the mere prototype level, too, as evidenced by the Xbox Linux Project now having both complete, step-by-step instructions available for users to modify their own Xbox systems, and an alternate plan catering to those who have the interest in modifying their systems, but not the time or technical inclinations. Specifically, this option involves users mailing their Xbox systems to community volunteers within the Xbox Linux Project, and basically having these volunteers perform the necessary software preparation or actually do the full Linux installation for them, free of charge (presumably not including shipping). This particular aspect of the project, dubbed “Users Help Users”, appears to be fairly new. Yet, it already lists over sixty volunteers capable and willing to perform this service, since “Many users don’t have the possibility, expertise or hardware” to perform these modifications. Amazingly enough, in some cases these volunteers are barely out of junior high school. One such volunteer stipulates that those seeking his assistance keep in mind that he is “just 14” and that when performing these modifications he “...will not always be finished by the next day”. (Steil 2003) In addition to this interesting if somewhat unusual level of community-driven support, there are currently several Linux-based options available for the Xbox. The two that are perhaps the most developed are GentooX, which is based of the popular Gentoo Linux distribution, and Ed’s Debian, based off the Debian GNU / Linux distribution. Both Gentoo and Debian are “seasoned” distributions that have been available for some time now, though Daniel Robbins, Chief Architect of Gentoo, refers to the product as actually being a “metadistribution” of Linux, due to its high degree of adaptability and configurability. (Gentoo 2004) Specifically, the Robbins asserts that Gentoo is capable of being “customized for just about any application or need. ...an ideal secure server, development workstation, professional desktop, gaming system, embedded solution or something else—whatever you need it to be.” (Robbins 2004) He further states that the whole point of Gentoo is to provide a better, more usable Linux experience than that found in many other distributions. Robbins states that: “The goal of Gentoo is to design tools and systems that allow a user to do their work pleasantly and efficiently as possible, as they see fit. Our tools should be a joy to use, and should help the user to appreciate the richness of the Linux and free software community, and the flexibility of free software. ...Put another way, the Gentoo philosophy is to create better tools. When a tool is doing its job perfectly, you might not even be very aware of its presence, because it does not interfere and make its presence known, nor does it force you to interact with it when you don’t want it to. The tool serves the user rather than the user serving the tool.” (Robbins 2004) There is also a so-called “live CD” Linux distribution suitable for the Xbox, called dyne:bolic, and an in-progress release of Slackware Linux, as well. According to the Xbox Linux Project, the only difference between the standard releases of these distributions and their Xbox counterparts is that “...the install process – and naturally the bootloader, the kernel and the kernel modules – are all customized for the Xbox.” (Xbox Linux Project, 2003) Of course, even if Gentoo is as user-friendly as Robbins purports, even if the Linux kernel itself has become significantly more robust and efficient, and even if Microsoft again drops the retail price of the Xbox, is this really a feasible solution in the classroom? Does the Xbox Linux Project have an army of 14 year olds willing to modify dozens, perhaps hundreds of these systems for use in secondary schools and higher education? Of course not. If such an institutional rollout were to be undertaken, it would require significant support from not only faculty, but Department Chairs, Deans, IT staff, and quite possible Chief Information Officers. Disk images would need to be customized for each institution to reflect their respective needs, ranging from setting specific home pages on web browsers, to bookmarks, to custom back-up and / or disk re-imaging scripts, to network authentication. This would be no small task. Yet, the steps mentioned above are essentially no different than what would be required of any IT staff when creating a new disk image for a computer lab, be it one for a Windows-based system or a Mac OS X-based one. The primary difference would be Linux itself—nothing more, nothing less. The institutional difficulties in undertaking such an effort would likely be encountered prior to even purchasing a single Xbox, in that they would involve the same difficulties associated with any new hardware or software initiative: staffing, budget, and support. If the institutional in question is either unwilling or unable to address these three factors, it would not matter if the Xbox itself was as free as Linux. An Open Future, or a Closed one? It is unclear how far the Xbox Linux Project will be allowed to go in their efforts to invade an essentially a proprietary system with OSS. Unlike Sony, which has made deliberate steps to commercialize similar efforts for their PlayStation 2 console, Microsoft appears resolute in fighting OSS on the Xbox by any means necessary. They will continue to crack down on any companies selling so-called mod chips, and will continue to employ technological protections to keep the Xbox “closed”. Despite clear evidence to the contrary, in all likelihood Microsoft continue to equate any OSS efforts directed at the Xbox with piracy-related motivations. Additionally, Microsoft’s successor to the Xbox would likely include additional anticircumvention technologies incorporated into it that could set the Xbox Linux Project back by months, years, or could stop it cold. Of course, it is difficult to say with any degree of certainty how this “Xbox 2” (perhaps a more appropriate name might be “Nextbox”) will impact this project. Regardless of how this device evolves, there can be little doubt of the value of Linux, OpenOffice.org, and other OSS to teaching and learning with technology. This value exists not only in terms of price, but in increased freedom from policies and technologies of control. New Linux distributions from Gentoo, Mandrake, Lycoris, Lindows, and other companies are just now starting to focus their efforts on Linux as user-friendly, easy to use desktop operating systems, rather than just server or “techno-geek” environments suitable for advanced programmers and computer operators. While metaphorically opening the Xbox may not be for everyone, and may not be a suitable computing solution for all, I believe we as educators must promote and encourage such efforts whenever possible. I suggest this because I believe we need to exercise our professional influence and ultimately shape the future of technology literacy, either individually as faculty and collectively as departments, colleges, or institutions. Moran and Fitzsimmons-Hunter argue this very point in Writing Teachers, Schools, Access, and Change. One of their fundamental provisions they use to define “access” asserts that there must be a willingness for teachers and students to “fight for the technologies that they need to pursue their goals for their own teaching and learning.” (Taylor / Ward 160) Regardless of whether or not this debate is grounded in the “beige boxes” of the past, or the Xboxes of the present, much is at stake. Private corporations should not be in a position to control the manner in which we use legally-purchased technologies, regardless of whether or not these technologies are then repurposed for literacy uses. I believe the exigency associated with this control, and the ongoing evolution of what is and is not a computer, dictates that we assert ourselves more actively into this discussion. We must take steps to provide our students with the best possible computer-mediated learning experience, however seemingly unorthodox the technological means might be, so that they may think critically, communicate effectively, and participate actively in society and in their future careers. About the Author Paul Cesarini is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Visual Communication & Technology Education, Bowling Green State University, Ohio Email: pcesari@bgnet.bgsu.edu Works Cited http://xbox-linux.sourceforge.net/docs/debian.php>.Baron, Denis. “From Pencils to Pixels: The Stages of Literacy Technologies.” Passions Pedagogies and 21st Century Technologies. Hawisher, Gail E., and Cynthia L. Selfe, Eds. Utah: Utah State University Press, 1999. 15 – 33. 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Introduction – Polish GrungeThe main objective of this article is to examine the grunge scene of the 1990s in Poland in the context of acculturation and assimilation processes. Polish grunge was, on the one hand, the expression of trends that were observable in music industry since the late 1980s. On the other hand, it was symptomatic of a rapid systemic transformation. Youth culture was open for the diffusion of cultural patterns and was ready to adopt certain patterns from the West.Thus, we suggest that the local grunge scene was completely modelled on the American one: the flow of cultural practices and subcultural fashion were the manifestations of the assimilation processes in Poland, observable not only in art (i.e. rock music), but also in the domains of politics and economy, as well as in the broader social sphere. We explore how young people were ready to adopt only the surface level of the phenomenon as they were familiar with it through the media coverage it received. Young people in Poland circa the early ‘90s primarily wanted to gain access to an imaginary Western lifestyle rather than learn about real living conditions in capitalist societies, and they could do this through their involvement in grunge culture.Grunge as a Cultural PhenomenonGrunge as a popular music trend arose in the USA during the late 1980s and early 1990s, in the work of bands such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains. Grunge was initially opposed to consumerism and capitalist values. Nevertheless, A&R scouts recognised the commercial potential of this music: for example, Nirvana’s Nevermind was released by Geffen Company, and Pearl Jam’s Ten by Epic. As Grzegorz Brzozowicz and Filip Łobodziński put it (313),the success of Nirvana was a post-mort triumph of punk rock and, more importantly, it indicated the potential of alternative music, which suddenly stepped outside an aesthetic ghetto and became a hot stuff. This influence was also visible as regards fashion and customs – Dr. Martens’ shoes, flannel shirts, frayed jeans, and wool caps became an outfit common for the young (…). Grunge influenced visual art, film and photography.In Poland, grunge as a subculture and sub-genre of rock music emerged in the early 1990s following the international commercial success of bands such as those listed above, and it entailed the assimilation of the Western cultural patterns. Although assimilation processes were typical primarily for youth culture, they were observed in the wider context of the changes and adaptations that Polish system underwent after the fall of the centrally planned economy and subjugation to the communist party power after the Yalta agreements (1945-1989/1990).In this context, the concept Centre/Periphery (Gopinathan, Saravanan and Altbach; Hannerz; Langholm; Pisciotta) appears as the field for the dissemination of popular culture. Popular culture is a battlefield for creating and negotiating the meanings that are inherent within cultural practices (Barker). Cultural practices play a double role in the dissemination of ideas or objects. Firstly, they come as a result of adaptation in a defined culture, and secondly, they make new cultural patterns stabile, visible, and easy to practice by people as flexible patterns of behaviour. This point is clearly visible in the context of the East European states that underwent rapid acculturation processes in which new patterns of economic and social solutions were established in centre-planned economies: the tensions of the “old” and the “new” patterns dominating in the political and social systems of those countries (e.g. Poland, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, etc.) were visible and affected societies to a considerable degree (Pisciotta). Thus, the practices generated in cultural Centres tend to disseminate easily and to “conquer” other cultural systems, especially in the Periphery.In the case of popular culture, the flow of influences usually takes a one-dimensional form and is disseminated from the Centre to the Periphery. As Marek Jeziński (162-163) argues, both Centre and Periphery are functional systems. These systems have generated their own mythology, which separates one from another. However, as in the case of mythological systems in general, Centre and Periphery tales overlap frequently, and there are evidence that the bands that originated in the Periphery were assimilated by the Centre. For example, Nirvana and Pearl Jam were both successful in market terms and both built their own status based on the Peripheral components that were skilfully overtaken by the Centre narrative. While the Peripheral narratives are concentrated mainly on the undermining of the definition of situation and present dysfunctional character towards cultural system as such, the Centre narratives aim to maintain the definition of situation supporting mainstream values and their prevailing position in a system (Jeziński 164). Grunge is the epitome of such an implementation of cultural patterns. That is, grunge started as a fringe peripheral cultural phenomenon. The major records companies, however, recognised its potential and provided the space in the music market to support the new bands. Most of the groups in the US started as independent local acts related to independent record companies that built their status.In relation to the assimilation of grunge culture in Poland, we can distinguish two key phenomena. The first is concerned with the adaptation of general subcultural components, e.g. fashion and group identification. Here, the acculturation processes run as a primary form of mimicry, as the Polish grunge scene adopted elements typical of the grunge subculture, such as oversize sweaters, flannel shirts, Dr. Martens shoes or Converse trainers, long hair, and beanies. A newly formed subculture was different from the others popular in the 1990s. For example, punk and metal subcultures implied strong group identity, style homogeneity, rigid group limitations, and firm membership rules. Conversely, it seems that the grunge subculture was based more on a level of liquid and fragmented patchwork identity than on very inflexible group values and internal ideology or political attitudes (cf. Muggleton). Such patchwork identity formation was a result of a rapid clash between the adaptation of grunge cultural patterns from the West and the Polish economic transformation of the early 1990s.Poland underwent rapid changes that were also visible in the politics, culture and social domain, joining liberal democracies and liberal free market economies of the West. These changes resulted from a transformation of the system as a whole: from a central planned system to decentralisation of the power at both local and state levels (Sarnecki). Equally important were the changes in the political culture of Poles and their value system: they accepted the democratic changes but simultaneously, the mentality of Poles remained traditionalist (which is visible in surveys— the most important values for them were “family” and “work”), and their attitude towards the processes of cultural and institutional changes was impermanent (Garlicki; Jasińska-Kania).During the transformation, the changes were visible in the everyday lives of Polish citizens: examples include the shortages in the market that were evident after the socialist regime ended, and the easy availability of Western clothes such as jeans, shirts, denim jackets in ordinary stores. Consequently, the economic rates in the 1990s were higher in comparison to the previous decade (Bałtowski and Miszewski). Those changes resulted in a phase shift in the modernisation process, where patterns of economic and cultural development and were faster than the enculturation and socialisation processes.On the one hand, the free market allowed for almost unlimited commodification with unprecedented access to goods and services. On the other hand, the low cultural capital and economic possibilities of the citizens evolved rapidly. The communist-shaped social division fell apart, and the new class designations based of consumption/commodification patterns were established (Jeziński; Wojtkowski). Those factors resulted in high cross-generational mobility, lower entrance barriers, and higher openness indicators (cf. Polska klasa średnia; O ruchliwości społecznej w polsce).Hence, in cultural conditions based on capitalist consumption practices, the grunge subculture evolved with a commodified sense of style rather than with a firm identity. Yet, in the case of grunge style, relatively high costs of subculture commodities (e.g. Dr. Martens shoes, Converse trainers, or band t-shirts) led to DIY practices such as buying cheaper no-name shoes, and sewing badges with the names of bands and albums on jackets or backpacks.The second phenomenon encompasses the adaptation of music patterns. The Polish grunge scene was not as diversified in terms of genre variations as its US counterpart. In the beginning, the Polish grunge scene was more distressed geographically, with no specific Centre-Periphery relations. However, one of the most important bands, Hey, was established in the Northwest. When one looks at Polish grunge evolution as a ‘clash’ of American genre and the specific character of a time and place where Polish bands were recording, she or he will notice multiple similarities with the US scene.Firstly, we could name two approaches to grunge music among Polish performers: ‘intellectual’ and ‘rebel’. The ‘intellectual’ approach encompasses the group Hey. This band was established in Szczecin (the Northwest Poland), but after the success of their first album – Fire (1993), they moved to Warsaw. Hey released 11 studio records, but only the first three could be classified as “grunge” (cf. Sankowski). On the level of musical references, Fire sounds like a mixture of early Pearl Jam combined with Alice in Chains. With English lyrics and song topics that were typical for grunge— e.g., The Choice (“You’ve got a gun/You can use it now”)—similarities with Pearl Jam, in particular, are striking. The band evolved, and on their second album, Ho! (1994), Hey mixed equally Polish and English lyrics with the dynamic and specific Seattle sound (cf. Prato). Hey’s most distinctive feature comparing with other Polish grunge bands is its highly developed melodic approach to music and the poetic, sensual style of its lyrics. The third record, ? (1995), closes the band’s early stage. The next album, Karma (1997), opens the period when the amalgamation of electronics, hard rock and grunge dominated Hey’s music, with the album [sic!] (2001) representing the turning point in the group’s music style. The band suspended their work in 2017 and will probably never reunite.Over time, Hey gained one of the most dedicated audiences in Polish rock music. The music industry and critics have acknowledged Hey as one of the best Polish groups in the post-communist period. Hey has received the most nominations in the history of Fryderyki, the key Polish music awards. The group and Nosowska have won twenty-three times in multiple categories. As the longest-operating grunge-origin band in the country, Hey could be considered as a most important trend setting and scene-forming group.The more “rebellious” approach to grunge encompasses bands such as Illusion (1992-1999, 2014-present) and Houk. The former was based on the grunge and hardcore mixture of influences from Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, and Rage Against the Machine (especially in terms of rap-oriented lyrics). With the preservation of certain consistency, the band named first three albums: Illusion (1993), Illusion II (1994), and Illusion III (1995). Illusion marks the band’s aggressive style and lyrics simplicity but the studio production flattens the whole and gives an impression of a post-punk DIY venture rather than a coherent composition. The second record, however, is entirely conceptualised and thought out in terms of music and lyrics. Sharp riffs, hard rock tuning of instruments and aggressive lyrics that were focused on Polish life gave the album a needed consistency. The band’s third record is the most varied stylistically and politically engaged in their history. The harder-edged tunes from previous releases are accompanied by more psychedelic compositions (Wrona) that recall Alice in Chains’ slow songs and Layne Staley’s voice.Houk’s music similarly to other Polish grunge bands was the amalgamation of various genres and their style evolved in time. Initially, the band was regarded as an example of alternative rock music. The first album Soul Ammunition (1992) was named by music monthly Tylko Rock as a debut of the year (polskirock.art.pl). The combination of grunge, hardcore, hard rock, reggae and socio-politically engaged lyrics helped the group to establish a strong fan base. The band’s unique style was recognised internationally and Houk supported New Model Army and Bad Brains during the performances in the mid-1990’s (polskirock.art.pl). The band’s second studio release Generation X (1995) was recorded prior the multiple membership reorganizations that finally ended the grunge-orientation period of Houk’s history. One of the songs, Sleep, was dedicated to Kurt Cobain and reflected Nirvana’s approach to songwriting, which can be heard in songs such as “Lithium” (1991). Such a commemoration of Cobain’s figure is characteristic of Polish grunge culture’s establishment of strong ties with the American equivalent. Here and in many similar cases, Cobain serves not only as a grunge hero (or even a martyr) but also as a commodified pop culture figure (cf. Strong). Concerning both spheres - that is, the adaptation of grunge subculture and a development of the music scene -Polish grunge follows a different pattern to the US genre. Grunge was introduced to Poland after it was popularised and commodified by the major labels and media industry in the USA, so the adopted version was the mainstream one rather than the underground movement. Hence, the simplistic dichotomy between “underground” and “mainstream” culture does not function in terms of the Polish grunge culture, and probably is misstated even when it comes to the American phenomenon. Grunge could be perceived in Poland as both the first and the last “true” subcultural trend. At the same time, though, it was an affirmation not of ‘the rebel’ and ‘the underground’ but of capitalism and the cultural values of the West. Indeed, the Polish grunge culture couldn’t be fully aware of what grunge was warning us against while Polish society faced the rapid market and cultural transformation that allowed for its opening to Western trends.Conclusion – Is Grunge Really Dead?Although the popularity of grunge phenomenon in Poland was relatively short, the most important groups of this sub-genre - Illusion, Hey, Ahimsa, Houk, and Kr’shna Brothers - widely contributed to the emergence of the new wave of fashion for rock and hard-rock music in Poland in the mid-1990s. The most successful group of the era, Hey epitomises the transformation of grunge in Poland. Starting as a typical grunge band (modelled heavily on the US groups), they underwent a serious transition, substantially changing their music into more mainstream-oriented rock (that is, as music that was considered acceptable by rock music and AOR-focused radio stations). At the same time, grunge as a rock sub-genre underwent the contrary changes: it broke into the mainstream relatively quickly in the first half of the 1990s, establishing new rock stars of the scene (Illusion, Houk, Ahimsa, Hey), but in the late 1990s it went back to being a rock niche again. It seems that today grunge serves as a point of reference (in fact, it was an important period of rock history) for the new bands that intentionally use this sub-genre as a form of commodified, media-friendly nostalgia.ReferencesBałtowski, Maciej, Miszewski, Maciej. Transformacja gospodarcza w Polsce. 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