Re: IPTW Documentation Requirement of Workshop Demonstrators
Input and comments are requested.

My thoughts on the idea of documentation are as follows:

The purpose of the documentation requirement is to encourage and assist
the demonstrator to think in terms of producing a record of their work
process.

Why bother? We would like to encourage the voice of the craftsperson.

Synopsis: The means of documentation has to be one that is suitable to
the activity of the craftsperson. The intent is not to produce a
documentation that is stringent and limiting to an existing model. With
my experience as a builder and stonemason I do not believe that the
means of documentation that are considered appropriate to the design
professional or architectural conservator as fully appropriate models
for the craftsperson. There are other means of documentation that are
valid and useful in the historic preservation process. As documentation
by a craftsperson is generally considered something that is not done, it
would be the intent of the requirement for the demonstrators, using the
freedom of their own ideas, to explore means and methods of
documentation that they find suitable. The result of the documentation
then becomes a body of information that can be studied with the idea to
determine how to most effectively collect documentation of traditional
trade skills. As well, the documentation produced can be used by PTN for
promoting the IPTW in future years.

Continuance: We need to be cautious in how we promote the idea. Asking a
craftsperson to write an abstract of their demonstration for the
purposes of publication in a journal may be intimidating to the
craftsperson to the point that they would balk from the idea of doing
any documentation. I would not exclude written documentation, but would
encourage a truncated form of documentation similar to a jobsite daily
report form supplemented with photographs and artifacts. If we get
essays, all the better, we can encourage the writers to become voices
for the trades and see to it that their writings get published.

Though I would not exclude slides, it has to be acknowledged that the
architect’s favored means of visual documentation may not appeal to the
demonstrators. We should be willing to accept instant prints (Polaroid)
as this is a form of documentation that the craftsperson may actually be
inclined to use in field practice.

I have often seen proposed for researchers to take an intellectual
approach to the problem of knowledge collection, working from outside of
the sensibilities of the craftsperson, and not dealing with the
emotional issues of the craftsperson not wanting to be approached as if
they are an interesting lab animal. It is also my subjective experience
that the best craftsperson is paranoid and reserved in giving out their
knowledge too freely, especially to jabberwokkies. By asking the trades
to invent their own body of information we can learn how best to advise
researchers on appropriate means of knowledge collection regarding
historic preservation skills.

The idea that the craftsperson does not produce documentation is
incorrect. The craftsperson produces documentation. The problem is that
those of us who are educated to think in terms of intellectual
abstractions are biased to not see that what is produced is valid
documentation. If we want the craftsperson to produce what we consider
for our own uses to be appropriate documentation then we are blinding
ourselves, as well as making value judgements towards the craftsperson
that they may internalize as offensive on our part.

On a recent project I noticed that the coppersmith was taking a piece of
roofing slate and with a copper nail scratched his dimensions for the
next work, then discarded the slate. This was on a very complicated
Victorian mansion, which required a lot of field calculations. I grabbed
up several of the discarded slates and asked him to sign them, with the
copper nail. I consider this authentic documentation. Just as with a
carpenter that figures on a scrap plank.

My grandfather was a master finish carpenter, in the real sense, and a
specialist in building of spiral staircases. For his last staircase
there exists on a single sheet of ruled paper, the type used by an
elementary student, a pencil sketch of calculations. This was the sole
working drawing for the construction and the only documentation other
than the still functional staircase itself. The origin of the paper
could have been that he asked the homeowner for a sheet of paper. There
are no other documents pertaining to a lifetime of highly skilled
building.

I worked for many years with an older stonemason who was very
recalcitrant when it came to giving away his information. We built
traditional design fireplaces, as well other stone structures, including
a house. It took two years of gaining his trust before he would show me
how to set a stone. It is not that setting a stone is so difficult, what
is difficult is gaining the trust that the master will impart the key
ingredient. To seek documentation of skilled preservation trades and to
assume that those who have the key information will give it away freely
is naïve. Quite often the craftsperson has gained their information
through some very difficult personal struggles.

I have spent the last twelve years working with mechanics in the field
with a requirement, as their employer, that they document their daily
activities. We place a lot of emphasis on taking of photographs and
currently have a 1:1.5 ratio of cameras to employees. We get a lot of
photographs of unrecognizable objects. This is good, because we take
these photographs and talk about how we can make them more useful. The
quality of the photographs has been noticeably increasing. We are also
learning to break fewer cameras, as they tend to get dropped from the
roofs of tall buildings. We also emphasize the need for daily written
documentation. This is difficult because our most skilled mechanics tend
to be our less literate individuals. We often, and consciously, pair a
skilled mechanic with a scribe as a working partner. In some cases we
get the reports in Spanish, which we consider acceptable even if we
cannot read Spanish. In other cases the handwriting is illegible, and
the crude inventions of spelling astounding. It appears that we spend a
lot of time fixing gudders and caulking lentils (I’m always complaining
that we caulk too many beans.)

Mechanics are very inclined to embrace alternate technologies of
document collection, in part because they are not constrained by
preconceived notions of what it means to record the experience. If given
almost any excuse mechanics will quickly master a video camera and have
a good time making movies, regardless of our ideas of editing. Video
should not be excluded from the documentation as time & motion, which
are essential elements of the bodily movements of traditional building
skills, are best captured by this media. Time and motion are not easily
portrayed in writing, or in static graphic images. Mechanics are more
familiar with video as documentary as they are inclined to have more
exposure to the television and the VCR than to the library.

][<en Follett