re' trade documentation....... as a journeyman roofer< with 32 years
experience>i find the subject of documentation and/ or it's purpose is being
overlooked..  If you track the project to the materials schedule, in the event
that the engineers determine that substandard materials might have been used in
a certain are of the project...ie. masonary, roofing, etc, it is much easier to
determine the areas involved...or so I have heard..


Leland Torrence wrote:

> Ken,
>
> Excellent thoughts and I concur on all accounts.  I would add that
> documantation even in real time is only an hour or so.  I have found that
> the unwillingness of a master craftsman to offer his "secrets" is often his
> wisdom that a little knowledge is dangerous in the wrong hands.  I refer
> also to the Eastern notion that someone cannot learn until he is "ready".
> It is important for Grasshopper to carry the water and scrub the stones.
>
> I like the idea of scribes, snappers and retrievers.  (One of my first jobs
> was working for a brick layer.  He was legendary for his craft and his light
> fingers.  My job was to secretly put back everything he stole during the
> work day.)
>
> Documentation is important and useful.  I might add audio tape as a
> sugestion.  Most craftsman think out a process very clearly - couldn't this
> be talked and then transcribed.  Still photos are good if you can make out
> what the subject is.  Even with minimum standards such as "35mm 4x6's, fill
> flash" the results will be sketchy.  However, I've seen some pretty good
> stuff on napkins.
>
> Leland
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ken Follett <[log in to unmask]>
> To: Ken Follett <[log in to unmask]>; Bruce Marcus
> <[log in to unmask]>; Leland Torrence
> <[log in to unmask]>; J. Bryan Blundell <[log in to unmask]>; PTN EC
> <[log in to unmask]>; Lisa Sasser <[log in to unmask]>; Michael Davidson
> <[log in to unmask]>; Rudy Christian <[log in to unmask]>; Tom McGrath
> <[log in to unmask]>; wptchtm <[log in to unmask]>; BP
> <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Thursday, April 02, 1998 1:21 PM
> Subject: Trade Documentation
>
> 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