ANST - Standing in the frying pan

[Gunnora Hallakarva]

Karl Muller said:
>all the reasons below are but a few of the reasons i no longer do a&s. (i've 
>been playing for 17 years and tried to introduce a non-european art form for 
>4 years. except for a few beads, it never got any recognition.)

Huh?

We regularly look at non-European arts in A&S competitions.  Just recently
I've seen Egyptian mosaic glass, Middle Eastern calligraphy, costume, and
dance, Oriental pottery, calligraphy, and costuming, Steppes feltmaking,
Russian icon writing and pysanky...

I would suggest that if your art form didn't get recognition that either
(1) your documentation didn't do what it needed to or (2) the quality of
your craftsmanship was much below that or the artisans around you.

Most of the time when entries that *you* think are wonderful don't get
awards or notice, the problem is that your documentation hasn't explained
how wonderful, time-consuming, and intricate a widget it really is.  If the
art is one that no one *but* you practices, then it's up to you to tell te
judges everything about that art or else we cannot hope to competently
judge your widget.  Therefore the judges are stuck with whatever their
personal knowledge is, which may lead us to think your widget is not
period, or that it was not as difficult to construct as it really is, or
what have you.

On extremely rare occasion, I've been presented with an item to judge where
the craftsmanship was just way below the level of everything else around it
-- if it had been crayons and a coloring book, the artist in question
"never learned to color inside the lines".  Still, in such a case, you
can't expect that the widget will score as well as the well-made items
around it, and this one is the hardest for us to comment on without hurting
feelings.

Even in the instance of substandard craftsmanship, good documentation can
be helpful -- if nothing else one could present the research that has been
done on the widget as a research paper or T.I. article.  A good example for
me would be Elizabethan Costuming -- I know how it works and what to look
for, but I cannot do it to save my life, and if I tried it would be bad
enough to make a cat laugh -- yet I could certainly write a good research
paper on Elizabethan costuming since I have excellent research and writing
skills.  

The point is, I bet that you never went to the judges and asked them what
was wrong.  If you had, you'd have gotten plenty of feedback and known
where to improve.  Even now it's not too late -- bring your widget and
documentation to the Laurels and ask for feedback at some venue outside
that of a competition.  Any of us would be more than happy to give you
feedback, advise you on what to do to make a better display, where to go
next with your documentation, and why exactly you weren't getting noticed
withthe widget at is now stands.


Wæs Þu Hæl (Waes Thu Hael)

::GUNNORA::

Gunnora Hallakarva
Baroness to the Court of Ansteorra
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
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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