Tools and artefacts : the effect of knowing ‘where-from’ on their present use

This paper focuses on how past knowledge of tools/artefacts affect their present use. The discussion is based on Wartofsky’s (1979) primary, secondary, and tertiary artefacts, and Engestrom’s (1990) subsequent activity theoretical elaboration. While Engestrom identifies two different kinds of internal (mental) secondary artefacts, this paper identifies an additional kind of tertiary artefact – ‘where-from’ artefact – that consists of experience based knowledge of the past. The conception of where-from, contributes to understanding, for instance, why people handle objects the way they do. This artefact, identified in a workplace study, also plays an important role in the process of learning through apprenticeship, since what novices are provided, in terms of instructions etc., partly depends on the more knowledgeable person’s past experiences.