ANST - A&S - does utility count?

[RAISYA at aol.com]

Don Christian Doré,

>I have noticed that those who judge and critique A&S tend to focus on 
>what I think of as the "fine arts" aspect, with a portion of 
>documentation thrown in.

>Some areas that seem to be ignored are the cleverness of the work and 
>it's utility, particularly as relates to its use in the SCA. Here are 
>a couple of examples:

I have to disagree.  I have, over a period of about 3 years, entered my 
garden, which is very utilitarian.  And it's also obviously difficult to 
display.  It wasn't even particularly pretty to look at, I was mostly growing 
plants for use, not ornament.

But my projects were very well received after the first year.  What I found 
was that utilitarian projects rely even more heavily on the documentation.  
The reality is, often items are judged by someone who knows very little about 
the specific item.  When that happens, they have to rely on the 
documentation.  To use one of your own examples:

>A woodworker builts a cart. It can haul 300 lbs and it breaks down 
>for easy transport to and from events. 

The documentation needs to explain how a period cart would have been made, 
the differences, and the reasons for the differences.  If this isn't done, 
the judges are going to judge it strictly against the period model.  Judges 
aren't telepathic.  If it isn't in the documentation, you can't assume 
they'll know.  If it was in the documentation and that was ignored, I am 
sorry to hear that.

In a perfect world, every item would be judged by an expert in that field.  
In reality, even at a Kingdom A&S competition, there are usually items that 
must be judged by someone who has, at best, read about the technique.  And 
there is a certain amount of subjectiveness in judging and variation between 
judges.

>If you are judging two 
>chests of equal quality and periodness, but you discover that one of 
>them cleverly hides a propane stove, are you willing to give that one 
>more points?

Absolutely.  Just as I would also give an extra point or two to an entry that 
explored a period technique that hasn't been tried before or had an 
impressive scope (i.e. sheep to shawl type projects) or was based on original 
research.

Raisya Khorivovna
Shire of the Shadowlands
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