Help in Convergence

Recently I took on the voluntary position of Executive Coordinator of the
Preservation Trades Network (PTN, an APT Task Force -- which BP, the
independent voice of the preservationeers, is not), a position formerly held
by Bryan Blundell. Business at Apple and dealing with the PTN leadership
transition, which is a personal activity and not Apple related, have kept me
fairly occupied in my leisure.

I need some help from BP.

As EC of PTN I am in a position that requires I find ways to facilitate the
needs of the preservation trades within the preservation industry. Sounds
interesting, but for the most part I don't know what that means and have to
make it up as I go along. Please feel free to help me make things up.

The theme of IPTW 2000 is "Convergence: Architecture and Craft." This I
inherited, and I do not want to appear ungrateful to the kind people who made
it so. My problem is that I'm wondering if I am off base in believing there
should be a transposition in the wording of the theme to "Convergence: Craft
and Architecture". The International Preservation Trades Workshop (IPTW) is
an event organized by the trades for the trades; it is a gathering of the
preservation trades. If Native Americans are hosting a potlatch you do not,
in good taste, advertise it as "Convergence: White Men and Red Women." To me
there seems to be something amiss in the wording "Convergence: Architecture
and Craft", that I feel oddly piled with. Possibly, Convergence: Craft
Invites Architecture"? (I would not go as far as, "Convergence: Craft Screws
Architecture".) I think it is too late to change the order of the words, but
I do need ideas on how to make good with them, or at the least, get this duck
squat out of my head. The preservation trades, as well as being a resource to
the preservation industry, embody the "knowledge of process" and I believe an
invitation from the trades to convergence should be in the form of the trades
inviting the architects to share in this knowledge, and not the other way
round.

Another problem that I have with an architect/craftsperson convergence is a
tendency on the part of some individuals toward patronizing of the
craftsperson. A convergence becomes more difficult when a radical voice
within the preservation trades believes that architects are useless idiots.
An irritable attitude devolved from random experience? Please don't take the
100% useless gripe as my position, as it is not. For the Negative Heads in
the trades it is a position, a strong one, but one that I suspect is mostly
heard when the speaker does not suspect to lose business or reputation from
the audience. Timid bravado. An attitude expressed in shoptalk, usually
between friends, built up on an escalating need to confirm justified cause
for the complaint as in, "You know what that idiot architect told us to do?
Do you believe that?" Regardless of the speaker's stated belief, they remain
convinced that the architect affects their ability to procure paying work,
and even iguanas know it is often bad business to speak plainly. The sense of
suspicion on the part of the trades, that architects will betray them,
precludes communication and convergence.

In general I agree with my craft and architect peers that there are many
less-than-competent design professionals to avoid, and only a few handfuls of
workable architects and craftspeople. As well, there is a need for the
camaraderie of togetherness, as the breed of architect that is patronizing to
the preservation trades seems as likely to be patronizing to preservation
architects, and would be unlikely to find themselves on BP to begin with.

Wording is a sensitive issue that needs to be addressed; otherwise the
aggressive constituency within the PTN will feel alienated - in turn leading
to a weaker voice of the trades. As it is my charge to develop the "Voice of
the Trades", I need the aggressive voices, as they are usually louder, that
is, if given a forum where they will speak. As to how you train "Loud
Shouting" into communicable voices I'm not quite sure and expect will not
soon find out short of PTN issued muzzles and collars, what some
affectionately refer to as "Tasking."

Lastly, I do not fully accept the rumor that the trades have historically
been relegated to a "minor" role in the process of constructing the built
environment and that it is only with our New Age of Enlightenment that the
trades should be brought back to their rightful place at the table. The
craftspeople have always been, and remain, with the Builders. To portray it
as otherwise, that the crafts ever had a "lesser" role, I think is a biased
rewrite of history. What is correct is that the design professionals have
been allied with the intellectuals, with connection to the printing press and
writings, and have held an undue influence in the realm of ideas whereby to
make their power myths prevail over those of the oral bound and spatially
oriented craftspeople. The trades build the table that we all sit at.

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