In a message dated 2/26/2002 12:20:35 PM Pacific Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
> If all the secrets are revealed, what sets us apart from the weekend
> restorer?
Mark,
What sets PTN apart is that as a group we are able, we hope, to share
information in confidence that it won't be used against us or to take away
our livelihood. People give to a healthy information network because they can
get back a fair exchange for their contribution.
If you give information and you find it is used against you or takes away
from your livelihood then you will quickly stop giving. Nobody says to give
away the secrets. We are talking exchange, which is a two way barter. In the
old world sense some speak of guild. I think that information sharing, if
respect for the building or the artifact is the primary concern, the exchange
has to go further than a closed system. We need a way in which to share
across disciplines and world views and to meet in common purpose.
Musicians come together and show each other chords and riffs, I don't think
anyone loses by this, in fact, I think a great deal of really fine things are
found. It is similar for the preservation trades at an IPTW to come together
and share. Sometimes the sharing may be over the difference between polyester
& polyurethane, sometimes it might be over problems getting paid on a project
or how to market more effectively, sometimes it is over an ale.
The idea with PTN, which came out of an APT incubator, was to focus on
building up the sharing in a trust environment between the trades working in
preservation. Recent IPTW themes have been Convergence, Partnering and in
August in WV will be Community. With the build-up of self-confidence within
the community of PTN it has been desired that we learn together to speak out
as professional members of the restoration team. This means that as we gain
comfort in sharing with our peers that we also keep in mind that our peers
are not only our friends with a hammer and saw but also the architects and
engineers and conservators and property owners and educators in what is a
really rather small field of construction called historic preservation and
that quite often we all are using different words or different tools to try
to get to the same place.
Of course, there are times for all of us when the world looks like hell and
nothing seems to work. The strength of PTN is that we can come together to
support each other to see the world as a better place. There is no reason
that any of us have to accept a world where we see ourselves at the wrong end
of the stick, fact is, the stick does not care which end we are on.
What the trades embody, I think, above all else, is the knowledge of process.
Which comes to another point that I have thought a great deal about, good
information is not good information when it is received by the unprepared. It
can either be used to cause damage, or simply used wrong. I think our friend
Walter Arnold is one cool dude in pointing you where you had to work to
learn.
Getting back to process... I've found that I can talk myself blue in the face
about how to do something but that it will have next to no effect on the
person listening having the skill to cut a straight line with a handsaw. I've
never seen anyone learn to cut stone with a pitching tool by reading a book.
This also goes to my thinking that there is an intelligence to the body,
particularly the body in motion, that is as important to our survival as the
intelligence of the mind. We can get along decently enough without one or the
other, but when everything comes together it can be pretty damned neat.
I only remember building some pretty fine chimneys, but I'll tell you one
thing, when mind and purpose and intent came together and the brick went
where I thought them to go I was having one hell of a good time. Nowdays I'm
happy, or sad, for other reasons.
The weekend restorer simply does not have the chops.
I argue for the trades sharing with others because it is what I know and
understand and I can see every day in my life how it works,
][<en
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