ANST - New noncombat topic

[Gunnora Hallakarva]

Siobhan said:
>Should Laurels compete in A&S competitions?  At the Steppes Artisan before
>the most recent one, a Laurel did compete and win, leading to much comment.
> What is the general sentiment on this subject?

Sael og heil!

Warning!  Warning!  This is a hot topic for me, what follows here is lengthy.

I think Laurels should compete.  Why on earth would we want to nurture
artistic talent, carefully tend it, encourage it to grow, rewarding such
growth along the way with rewards, praise, and opportunities to show off,
only to say, when the artist is at the peak of their development, "OK, now
we never again want to see you show off your stuff and you can no longer
get praise -- playtime is over, crank out prizes for events and judge
competitions, but don't you dare enter one yourself!"

That's like saying to a knight, OK, you have your white belt.  Now you can
no longer enter tournaments, you are not allowed to fight in Kingdom
Warlord or in Crown.  All you are allowed to do is marshal and teach new
fighters.  I bet that would be very popular with the warriors of our fair
realm!

I think that not allowing Laurels to continue competing is a direct
contributor to the well known problem of "resting on the Laurels" after
getting the peerage.  Many Laurels get bummed out because they are shoved
aside and quit doing anything artistic.  And just displaying your stuff
while others compete is not enough... what I always hear is, "But you're a
Laurel, your stuff is supposed to be master-quality.  You don't need
encouragement, we're saving our words of praise for the younger artisans."  

If we didn't enjoy showing off our talents, most of us wouldn't be Laurels
and might not be in the SCA.  Since exhibiting in competitions is pretty
much the main path to an eventual Laurel (you must display in order for
people to know your work, etc), this tends to result in Laurels who like
displaying -- it's too much work for people to do it if they weren't
getting something out of it other than the chance of possibly getting an
arts award someday at the whim of the Crown.  Then suddenly you're a
Laurel, and can no longer display.  

Siobhan went on to query:
>Also, how do the requirements of honor and chivalry translate into non-combat
>competitions, or do they?  In an A&S competition, exactly who is your
>"opponent," others with entries in the same categories, or, as some recent
>discussions seem to indicate, the person judging the entry?

Honor:  you are on your honor when entering A&S competitions in a number of
ways.  You must accurately describe how you made the piece.  It is very
dishonorable to try and pass off an item that someone else made as your
own.  Another place honor is vital to A&S competitions is in documentation:
plagarism is dishonorable, it is dishonorable to falsify information in
your write up to make your technique seem more authentic; it is
dishonorable to claim you made all your dyes from herbs and other natural
materials when you are using commercial aniline dyes; I could go on.

Chivalry:  how do you define chivalry in such a way as to be able to apply
it to an A&S competition?  Shall we sidestep and instead discuss fair play?
 Some people think it is "unfair" to compete in A&S against a Laurel,
assuming, I guess, that the Laurel by virtue of their mastry in the arts
has an unfair advantage over all other entrants.  I find this attitude
impenetrable.  I still recall how, at the last Laurel's Prize Tourney, we
had a young lad who not only stated that he wanted to compete with the
adults and not the children, he went on to say that he wanted his work
judged against that of the Laurels -- he wanted to compete against the
best.  I found this attitude extremely admirable, and I suspect that in the
fullness of time this young man will find himself a Peer, because he has a
winner's attitude. Why measure yourself against a deliberately low
standard?  That's like playing basketball with hoops 3 feet off the ground
-- no challenge.

Even if you argue that it is unfair to compete against a Laurel who is a
master in their field and therefore cannot lose in a category, I think that
is a demonstrably flawed argument as well.  I have seen people displaying
master-level work in their first A&S competition, and I have likewise seen
people never improving their craftsmanship or technique in the course of a
decade.  And who is to say that a Laurel will be displaying work in the
field of expertise that they are well-known for?  I have been experimenting
with, and producing high quality work, in at least three fields of artistic
endeavor which I had never tried before I became a Peer.  The only
advantage my mastery gave me in these new arts was the basics of good
craftsmanship, which cross the lines of the various disciplines: finish the
item, do not neglect the small details, work with an eye to exactitude.

Some people want to allow Laurels to compete, but to structure the
competition so that Laurels compete only with Laurels.  This would be fine
if the Laurels were all entering works in the fields in which they have
achieved mastery -- they would be playing on a level field.  But what if
they are showing new arts?  What if the Elizabethan costumer has rolled up
her sleeves and started working on making pattern-welded sword blades?  Or
the aster armorer has set aside his hammer and taken up scrivener's tools,
and so on?  Should these people compete only with Laurels?  Or do you rank
them as beginners?  And what is a beginner?  If a person has mundanely been
practicing an art for ten years at mastery level, but has just joined the
SCA and is entering his first A&S competition, is he a beginner?

My experience with management and teaching tells me that if you set low
goals, people will never exert themselves to far exceed those goals.  But
if you set a goal that is lofty, people will give everything and then some
to attain it, sometimes exceeding your expectations as well as their own. 

Let the Laurels compete.  We are Ansteorrans, inhabitants of the Land of
the Star.  Aspera ad Astra, the Latin motto goes:  "Aspire to the Stars!"
Let us keep our goals and our ideals as stellar as our badge, so that we
can surprise ourselves by reaching for the stars and, sometimes, attaining
them.

Wæs Þu Hæl (Waes Thu Hael)

::GUNNORA::

Gunnora Hallakarva
Herskerinde
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Ek eigi visa þik hversu oðlask Lofstirrlauf-Kruna heldr hversu na Hersis-Aðal
(Ek eigi thik hversu odhlask Lofstirrlauf-Kruna heldr hversu na Hersis-Adhal)

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