ANST - Documentation in competitions (long)

[Jennifer Carlson]

Thank you to all of you who have commented on this subject so far.  I hope 
that the discussion will continue.  This is indeed an important topic and 
one that involves me deeply and personally.

It may indeed seem, as Lord Michael Silverhands asserts, that there is "a 
trend towards putting more emphasis on documentation than on the work 
itself." Documentation, however, is only a minority portion of an overall 
score.  As are Materials.  As is Design.  As is Execution.  As is Skill.  I 
agree that 20% is probably too much emphasis to place on the documentation, 
particularly if the A&S competition is not to choose war champions or a 
kingdom artisan.

Not to give positive feedback is a gross error on the part of any judge. 
 Judges are often pressed for time, or required to judge in areas in which 
they do not possess a great deal of knowledge, but they should still find 
time to compliment what you do well, and give positive encouragement 
regarding the aspects of your craft in which you have opportunity to 
improve.  For many artisans, one of those areas is documentation.  Please 
don't take it personally, but if you do receive a comment about your 
documentation, try to find out why the judge said what she did.  Perhaps 
all you need to do is change your format.  Perhaps you need to explain 
technical jargon.  Perhaps the judge was just a stuffed shirt.  If you 
cannot talk to the judge (which happens all too often), talk to a laurel 
whom you know well.  If you don't know any well, talk to one whom you 
respect.

With regards to losing to a cruder piece of work, I can sympathize with 
you.  It happens to all of us at one time or another.  But, do you know why 
that person got overall higher marks?  Was it just the difference of the 
presence of documentation?  Or was it what that documentation contained? 
Was the item hand-sewn with a bone needle, rather than machine-sewn?  Or 
polished using period methods rather than on a bench grinder?  Did the 
artisan use period ingredients in the pigments, rather than modern, 
commercially-prepared ones?  Was the other artisan perhaps purposefully 
making an exact replica of a period artifact, which may have been made by 
an inferior medieval craftsman?  It may have been something other than just 
the documentation that made the difference.

To Lord Mahee, I say that losing 20% of your score due to lack of 
documentation is indeed a blow.  That is a large weight to put on the 
documentation portion of a competition.  I only give a zero score for 
documentation if you have absolutely nothing - you will receive a point 
just for putting down your name.  The more information you give me, the 
higher the score, to an extent --  then, the better the information, the 
better the score.  Give me the "Six W's and an H of Journalism" and you'll 
likely get a good score:

WHO - are you?
WHAT - is it that you made and want me to judge?
WHEN - is the time period it comes from?
WHERE - is its country/culture of origin?
WHY - did you construct/draw/cook/etc. it the way you did?
HOW - was it constructed/drawn/cooked/etc. in period?
WHICH - teachers/books/articles/traditions/classes contributed to your 
making this item? (Please include photocopies if possible, for extra 
points)

I also look at the quality of your answers to those seven answers. 
 Sometimes it will take several pages to answer them, sometimes only one.

That's it.   Any extra requirements regarding documentation are particular 
to the specific competition being entered.

To Lady Simone: allow me to modify your statement that "Documentation 
though dose (sic) not reflect on the quality of an artesian (sic)".  I say, 
rather: Documentation is but one reflection of an artisan's quality.  Our 
crafts are in our heads as well as our hands.  I prefer to learn from you 
by talking with you, but this is not always possible.  Documentation is 
your means of teaching me when you are away from your display.  If the 
documentation is skimpy, I am deprived of what you know, which will help me 
in giving you the score you deserve.  In your example, the poorer quality 
costumer got the better score because she fulfilled the requirements of the 
competition.  If the best figure skater forgets to do a required double 
toe-loop, she will lose to a lesser skater who does - it is a requirement 
of the competition.

All art forms can be subjective, not just performing, brewing and cooking: 
and all art forms can be objective.  Documentation gives the judge 
something to rely on besides his own knowledge and gut instinct, and 
decreases the inherent subjectivity of the judging.  If the judge ignores 
the documentation, he is a bad judge.  A bad judge will always be 
subjective.

To my colleague Petruccio: my thanks for your excellent responses to some 
of the questions that are being posed.

To all of you who have questions or problems with how documentation is 
handled: please, please, talk to us.  I do not bite.  I do not think that 
any of the other laurels bite. Talk to more than one of us, because you 
will find that, unlike an ant colony, we do not all think with one mind. 
 Our opinions on the subject and our approaches to it vary.

Yours in service,

Dunstana Talana the Violet, OL
Northkeep
Jcarlson at firstchurchtulsa.org

Exodus 35: 30-35


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