ANST - A&S judging? <kinda long>

[Dennis and/or Dory Grace]

At 12:34 AM 9/9/97 -0700, Piotr wrote:
>Imagine Piotr the Happy Idiot(tm) wandering thru the hall where the A&S
>competition is going on... Now we all know that he knows diddly, but more
>importantly *he* knows that he knows diddly.

But based on the conclusions he reaches--ie: "massive bibliography,"  "clear,
concise descriptions" and "The effort involved was obviously
Herculean."--Piotr is obviously not an idiot. Piotr is merely an interested
and observant individual with an opinion, and that's fine.

Out of curiosity, what was the PUT, anyway? I'd be interested in learning
that.

>At an Ansteorran event I did overhear one Laurel tell another one something
>to the effect that even though she didn't know anything about *subject* she
>was going to judge it anyway.
>If I were to enter something of my creation in an A&S competition, I would
>want *real* criticism, that is - constructive commentary on how it might be
>improved, from someone with some knowledge of my science/artform.

Ideally, each A&S entry would be judged by someone proficient in that
particular area. Realistically, that's not always going to be the case.
However, also ideally, an artist with a background in costuming should be
able to give useful feedback on an entry in, say, leatherworking if the
entrant has provided adequate documentation telling what the item is, when
and where they did such work in period, how they did it, what the period
techniques were and why they may have deviated from them, how the item was
used and by whom, and provides a bibliography/resource attachment to back
up what they've just told us. Using the documentation as a quideline, the
judge should be able to give at least cursory feedback on entry, paying
attention to what they can of workmanship, aesthetic appeal, amount of
effort put into the entry, etc. Someone with a backgound in sculpture or
painting should be able to speak to basic concerns like composition, color
treatment, balance, and the like, just about as well as a master
leatherworker could.

>Aesthetics *anyone* can (and will) judge,

Here I have to beg to differ with you a bit. Anyone can judge *what they
like* but not necessarily be versed enough to judge *aesthetics.* I know
we're going into a bit of a grey area here for some, but here's an example.
I don't particularly want some of Picasso's paintings (let alone his
sculpture) on my wall, but I can appreciate such work as his "Guernica" for
it's multileveled aesthetic appeal in the line quality, the compositional
tension between elements, the strength of color application on certain
elements, etc. Same with period work. Also, I may not like the particular
color of baby-vomit green and Barbie-pink someone uses in their
illumination, but if there's a color zerox sitting right there in the
documentation that shows use of such color combinations in period, and the
overall composition is strong and decorative elements are creatively
employed, who am I to mark the entry down in aesthetics just because I
don't go for one of their period color combinations? It wouldn't be right;
and it wouldn't be objective. Just because something is period doesn't mean
it's going to jive with our 20th century sense of generally accepted
aesthetics *or* what someone does or does not like. It takes being able to
move beyond that mindset and take a more objective approach. 

The PUT that you referred to earlier; if it was well-made and well-crafted,
exactly what about it was ugly? I may not have an affinity for, say,
trebuchets, but if I see one that's well finished and exhibits a high
degree of workmanship, I can see the aesthetic appeal in it; doesn't
necessarily appeal to *me*, but I should be able to see it's potential
appeal nonetheless. Does that make any sense?

>But an honest, signed "I liked it, but don't feel qualified to judge it
>because..." hurts no ones feelings, makes the maker aware that it was at
>least looked at, and preserves (if not increases!) the integrity of the
>judging, and takes not too much time.

I also think that this is an excellent suggestion. Folks shouldn't feel so
compelled to try to "know" about things they don't really "know" about.
There's  no dishonor in not knowing about something and saying so; to the
contrary, it's an admirable trait to nurture. 

Aquilanne
Dory Grace--The Inkwell
denouncer of Tytvylus & warrior crone
amazing at mail.utexas.edu
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