PAUL CHANEY

2014

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Commissioned by CCANW for the Soil Culture project, Breast

Plough'o'metric is an accurate replica of an existing ancient breast plough found in Helston Museum, Cornwall.

Constructed in forged iron and green chestnut, Breast Plough'o'metric is fitted with a series of digital strain gauges and a small on-board computer to allow the operator to record the exact amount of effort needed to plough some land by human power alone.

The work follows the Slug'o'metric series (see FIELDCLUB 2012) in exploring the metrics of direct human interaction with the land. Breast Plough'o'metric is designed to allow the calculation of the co-efficient of human labour - the amount of calories that can be gained from the cultivation of a given tract of land compared to the amount of calories burned during effort exerted - representing a realist investigation into the 'tyranny of labour'.

Link to: CCANW
Link to: Helston Museum