My first iteration (“α”) at building a multimodal research tool on how construction trades apprentices learn is very scattered, but it centers around the following taxonomy:

Labor traditions date back centuries (guilds) and millennia (collegia). The apprenticeship tradition is how one generation shares with a later one, what we know before we retire. These traditions trace back to our earliest writings.

So far, the best way I have found to access multimodalities on ancient craft culture, is via the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage text. “Intangible cultural heritage” includes: (e) traditional craftsmanship.

The “mutation” causing the branch, supra: capitalism, which converted crafted goods into commercial products, and embodied cognition into reflexive, unskilled labor. The Luddite rebellion was not a reaction against novel technologies – in fact most were highly skilled artisans. Why Luddites broke machines was a rebellion against “free markets” gutting community values dating back to the Tudors. Scandinavians artisans annealing bronze a millennium ago could not make it right at the branch. Today, “digitization” is another branch we must bear.

Digitizing construction trades apprentice traditions is not merely reproducing the best way to hold a hammer, turn a screwdriver, saw some wood, – what values must we ensure make the migration from analog to digital? My personal α guides me towards Luddites, Slöyd, and Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Our USA construction trades labor movement perhaps is perhaps upon a crest right now. All the more reason for us to forge relationships with cultural heritage movements. Slöyd is an exemplar of what that could be. It is an imperative that apprenticeship traditions dating back to our earliest writings are respected and preserved as we walk this digital migration.