Can We Even Comprehend Craftsmanship Today?
In my last blog we discussed whether or not today’s tradespeople were capable of the same level of craftsmanship their predecessors possessed, but I feel it is just as important for us to consider whether we have the ability to recognize, and truly appreciate, quality craftsmanship when we see it. I have talked before about how different today’s world is and how that can impact the work of the tradesperson. The reality is it affects the tradesperson’s patrons just as much, if not more.
A masonry sample extraction that most people would walk right past without thinking about the skill and knowledge of materials that make it work. Photo: courtesy of Ken Follett
We live in a world where it is difficult, if not impossible, to recognize the hand of man in the modern things that surround us. Oftentimes, it seems that there is an automatic assumption that if something was made by hand, it must be old, an assumption that is anything but odd considering the fact that things that are old are the very things we associate with craftsmanship.
How we got here is not difficult to understand. The system of capitalism we employ to sustain our economy, and many of the economies around the world, demands that products be competitively priced to be marketable. This in turn often means that the best way to make something is most likely not by hand. The catch is in the term “best,” because marketability becomes the standard by which value is assessed.
When I was young, I remember my German grandfather owning a Cadillac. He didn’t purchase it as a status symbol. He drove it because he felt it had the most value for the money he had used to purchase it. It was the best investment. Today, value is rarely based on quality.
Instead we use various methods to associate value with an object, depending on what that object is and how we intend to use it. If it is food, we generally consider it a good value if it has a low price, because, for the most part, a cabbage is a cabbage. If it is clothing, cost is still a major factor, but now we have to add appearance to the equation. How this item will look on me or how it will make me look becomes part of the perceived value. Few people seem concerned about how the cabbage they eat will make them look.
When choosing a car, both cost and appearance play a part in the value we perceive it to have, but now we add other factors like fuel economy, performance, features and options, among others. And when we decide to invest in a home, all of the previously mentioned value items come into play at some level, but now we add potential resale value, neighborhood, school systems, access to mass transit and a myriad of essentials into deciding if the home is a good value.
At this point, I’m sure some of you are saying, “So what?” If you go back and review what we just discussed the one glaring omission is craftsmanship. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying no one pays attention to how well things are made or that some of us never even care, although that is clearly plausible. What I am saying is that how we value nearly everything that is produced in the world we live in is, for the most part, not based on our ability to discern the craftsmanship it embodies.
Why have we evolved into this value structure? I can’t say I can answer that question, with any degree of confidence. But I can ask it. I have been in many discussions, some more heated than others, about why so few people value the work we do, and in far too many of those interactions, I have come to believe that it’s generally accepted that very few people even care about craftsmanship anymore. I think the real truth is they may not even know how.
If I am right, how we market the concept of conservation can’t be objective. We need to see beyond the things we are trying to keep and learn to see where they really came from. The Secretary of the Interior’s Standards of Building Conservation (my name, not the actual one) are ever changing, as they should be, but they have one basic flaw; they are object oriented. In reality, they are the same as the educational guidelines used to operate the K-12 public school system; they are based on results, not process.
As many people have heard me state in the past, what we need is cultural change. I know that is not an easy row to hoe, but without looking at the value structure we have inherited and realizing how it is blinding us to what the real problems are in conserving our built environment, we only shadow box with our own images. Until we really begin the hard work of putting the tradesperson back into the perception of craftsmanship, we are kidding ourselves that treading water will work when the flow of the mill pond of society is simply driving the mill of manufactured values.
Having started with a contractor fresh out of Job Corps (IMI) I was given the time to develop a practice of quality first in my masonry work. This was largely the result of low wages paid to me. The quality of the work today… ie Craftsmanship is tied into economic considerations. Not every guy on the crew can be Michael Angelo or the outfit goes broke. The absurd price of materials and overhead of the contractor requires production levels be met. Quality is the first thing to go. Craftsmanship in masonry is being safe kept by many of us able to do jobs on the weekends and government work. Thanks for a thoughtful article Rudy.
Craig – Thanx for your feedback. You make a good point about the marketplace not being the best place to look for good craftsmanship. I myself find I enjoy working on my own home because I can really go all out and do it well. When it’s not about money, it’s about the joy of doing a good job.@Craig T
You touch upon a deep and profound problem. In a world accelerating headlong into cultural realms largely defined by virtual and computer generated forms of art gratification, we no longer know craft as even tactile and solid objects. The creative impulse has taken up residence in virtual sets and costumes found in CGI movies, objects and spaces to be seen and imagined, but never touched or lived within. While the modern, plugged-in mind and human imagination are stimulated and intrigued by the visual artist’s computer craft, those of us who wish to continue to practice crafts that produce solid things are struggling to market our wares to a consumer who knows desired things as being sleek and shiny images on a screen. The actual objects in their lives are largely cheaply made and are disdained, and viewed as disposable nuisances. Things they will all too soon have to incur the expense to replace. Compounding this devaluation of things made, our public schools continue to be forced into paring away non-testable, non-measurable learning opportunities, so our children no longer take shop or art classes. Unaware of the skill and investment of effort required to make something well, they do not value the things craft can produce.
You’re talking about Slow Building. It’s related to Locatecture.
The same problem here in Belgium . just started a Site for Quality Craftsmanship ‘Pearls of Craftsmanship’. « Pearls of Craftsmanship » can be a source of inspiration for many, in their quest for personalization why not, just some surprising encounter. This site has already 20 members, 17 Belgians and 3 Dutch and it will steadily grow with the addition of new members from other sectors in Belgium and the Netherlands.
“A masonry sample extraction that most people would walk right past without thinking about the skill and knowledge of materials that make it work.”
I can not read this caption, or the rest of this article (or the preceding one), without thinking about this article which I would encourage all of you to read and consider.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html
I believe that recognizing quality is a practiced thing; you have to do it all of the time and you have to apply it to many arenas. The mere act of evaluating something, anything, for what might distinguish it as better, or worse, is becoming lost. Most things we are asked to consider, like that cabbage, have been ‘manufactured’ to be just like every other cabbage. Recognizing quality is therefore becoming harder and harder to do as more and more of our world becomes homogenized
Food is a great example because we all know something about food and still we have been led to believe that it is all the same, when nothing could be further from the truth. Many judge a quality restaurant by its price but I have been to many expensive restaurants that did not serve quality meals. I have also had wonderful food that was inexpensive.
People today also demand predictability. No matter where they are they want the food they are used to eating; hence wherever you go you find the same array of chain restaurants. This way you do not have to even consider quality; you know what you are going to get before you walk in the door. Even pizza, which was concocted to make use of leftovers and varied wildly from place to place, has become the same thing wherever you go.
A few years ago my family and I attended a draft horse show. I know nothing about horses and my children were young. During the portion of the show where the different teams were judged on how well they pulled their wagons around the arena I asked my kids to pick the best in their opinion before the results were announced. I made myself do the same. It was very hard to concentrate on the horses and the wagons and to take into account all of the many elements of each team but we did. And more often than not we picked the top team, or our pick was second. (For more on this kind of thing I would suggest that you read ‘Blink’ by Malcolm Gladwell.)
So I believe the challenge is to practice making these distinctions. And it is a challenge because you have to stick your neck out and say this is better then that; and sometimes you will be wrong. Nevertheless if we struggle to make distinctions, comparing and contrasting the quality of things around us, then we will learn what about that thing makes it better. I believe this is how we can advance the quality of a given thing rather than follow the pack to mediocrity.
Chuck,
Good thoughts and comments and a very enlightening article, although a bit close to home. I couldn’t help but enjoy the similarity between the name of the Washington Post article “Pearls Before Breakfast” and the name of the Belgian Site for Quality Craftsmanship “Pearls of Craftsmanship” that Patrick mentioned. Thanx for reading and thanx for your “food for thought”.@Chuck Bultman
Hi Rudy – I started to leave a short reply to your post, but it turned into an essay of sorts. Here’s a link, if you’re interested: http://ow.ly/kNiok
Keep up the good thoughts, and thanks for the inspiration.