[Ansteorra] The Journey: A&S

[Anthony Lackey]

Actually, it has been the topic of a class I have been teaching for several
years.  If this gentle lady (or any other person) wishes to read the class
handout I use for the class (which has appended to it Mistress Gunnora's
insightful essay on the subject,
with her gracious permission), I will gladly send it to them if they will send a
self adressed letter-sized manila envelope with 1 34-cent stamp and 1 23-cent
stamp to:

Catherine Lackey
207 S. Harvard
Tulsa, OK 74112

(I would like to cover the postage and envelope costs myself, but massive car
repairs have eaten my discretionary income for a while)
    It's a very user-friendly (so I'm told) explanation of how to turn out both
extensive
and abbreviated documentation painlessly.

Catrin ferch Gwilym, O.L.

Brian Martin wrote:

> Hmmm, sounds like a good topic for a class!
>
> Pendaran
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: cehuse [mailto:cehuse at sbcglobal.net]
> Sent: Wednesday, April 17, 2002 12:10 AM
> To: ansteorra at ansteorra.org
> Subject: RE: [Ansteorra] The Journey: A&S
>
> So, this leads me to ask....What makes for good documentation? How do you
> write
> documentation? I've not entered anything because I know nothing about
> writing
> documentation. When I have asked, the only answers I get are vague and
> confusing.
>
> Maria
>
> *** St. Theresa's Prayer ****
> May today there be peace within
> May you trust your highest power that you are exactly where you are meant to
> be....
> May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith
> May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that
> has
> been given to you....
> May you be content knowing you are a child of God....
> Let this presence settle into our bones, and allow your soul the freedom to
> sing, and dance,
> It is there for each and every one of you....
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > I tried to figure out who said what to whom, but I couldn't see clearly
> who
> > said what.  So I'm just going to address some points as they occur in this
> > thread in general.
> >
> > >In a static A&S you may or may not get to talk with the judge who may or
> > >may not know as much as you do about what you are doing.
> >
> > In much the same way, an über-Duke can walk out and get one-shotted by an
> > absolute newby fighter. Sometimes it's luck and who's there and what kind
> of
> > day everyone is having.
> >
> > It is always a possibility that at a judged competition there may not be a
> > judge available who does know more about your topic than you do.  This is
> > why we need your documentation.  Any Laurel should be able to pick our
> > quality craftsmanship in a piece, even if it is not their field of
> > expertise.  Given solid, basic documentation, and an awareness of
> > craftsmanship, the judge can usually figure out more or less how to
> evaluate
> > an entry.
> >
> > On the other hand, if I had a farthing for every A&S entry that I've
> judged
> > that had no documentation, or where the documentation didn't cover even
> > minimal basics, I'd own a *much* larger farm by now.  Documentation isn't
> > (despite artisan rumors to the contrary) some obscure torture the Laurels
> > put you through for our own twisted amusement... it's very frequently
> > completely critical to us being able to judge your work at all.
> >
> > >Also you are competing, like in bardic, against everyone at the same
> time.
> > >It is a different type of competition.
> >
> > Not exactly.  What we've been trying for is a "dog show" type of judging.
> > We're not basing your A&S score on that of anyone around you, or how
> > well/poorly others did.  We are *attempting*, within the limitation of
> each
> > judge's very human and subjective understanding, to consider your item
> > against a "Breed Standard" for whatever type of thing it is.
> >
> > So, for example, if you enter a reproduction of a carved 9th century
> > Icelandic whalebone earspoon and I end up judging it, I'm going to
> consider
> > your reproduction against your documentation and what I know about
> horn/bone
> > carving and about personal toilet items in the early Middle Ages.  Then,
> > following the predefined areas on the judging sheet, I have to rank how
> well
> > you did in various categories.
> >
> > This is harder than you'd think. If you have never judged using our forms,
> > come ask me or another Laurel at the next A&S competition to help us
> judge.
> > I think *every* artisan competing should do this at least a time or two,
> > just so you can understand where we are getting these numbers (and no,
> we're
> > not usually pulling them out of our colons!)
> >
> > When considering on, say, a 1 to 5 scale, with 5 being high, a 5 would
> mean
> > that you were absolutely perfect and needed no improvement whatsoever, and
> > there was no way I could think of to offer suggestions for possible
> > improvements.  On that scale, a 3 would mean that you were doing pretty
> > good, you got a lot of things right and there are some areas that you
> might
> > want to investigate further for future projects.  A score less than that
> > probably in real life means that your documentation was so bad that we
> > couldn't score you any higher, because you didn't give us enough info to
> be
> > able to do so.
> >
> > >When A&S is judged, we are judged against a masters skill. It would be
> much
> > >like if I knew that every time I stepped onto the tourney field I would
> > >draw you at your peak performance...why bother stepping on the
> > >field other than for the sheer pleasure of getting my toosh wooped.
> >
> > To which someone (possibly Pendaran) replied:
> > >>This is incorrect. People are asked for their level of expertise on the
> > >>judging form. If you rate yourself as an expert, you'll be judged as
> one.
> > >>If you rate yourself as a novice you'll be judged as one.
> >
> > The first point in this pair is just not right at all, and the second kind
> > of misses the point altogether (though it's true insofar as it goes).
> >
> > When we are juding an A&S competition, we are not judging you again a
> > Laurel's skill level.  We are not deducting points for poor performance.
> >
> > Our job is to look at the object, and where possible make useful
> suggestions
> > on how you can make improvements, either in the object itself or in future
> > projects of a similar nature.  Simultaneously, we have to fill out that
> > little judging form.
> >
> > Think of the scoring not as "points deducted" from the score, but rather
> > that we start with a zero and *add points onto the score* based on the
> > entry's merits when compared against your documentation and the judge's
> > knowledge of the art.
> >
> > In theory, every judge should be writing commentary on your forms.  We
> > should be including comments about what was good about the piece, as well
> as
> > offering suggestions on ways to improve either the piece or future work in
> > the same field.
> >
> > In reality, sometimes this doesn't happen.  Heck, I write more than most
> > people and sometimes we get so swamped dur to lots of entris and few
> judges
> > that I even don't do as good a job as a should.
> >
> > What the Expert/Intermediate/Novice info on the form is supposed to do is
> to
> > help the judges in structuring the commentary they give back to the
> artisan.
> >   I'm going to spend more time and warm fuzzies on a new artisan than I am
> > to some crusty old reprobate who has been working in that field for years.
> > I'd be wasting the expert's time with trivial feedback -- or I could
> > overwhelm the new person with too much detail and too many
> recommendations.
> > A novice needs one or two basic, concrete suggestions for improvement,
> plus
> > encouragement.  An expert needs good, solid, factual feedback at as high a
> > level as it can be offered, often in very nitpicking areas of the field.
> >
> > >On the field, your weapons vary, in A&S although I can do stainglass or
> > >calligraphy or weaving and so on, the battle is still faught with the
> > >printed word. Very infrequently do the judges interview the
> > >partisipants.
> >
> > Actually, whenever possible judges usually try to talk to the artisans if
> we
> > can.  Sometimes time constraints or lack of enough personnel makes this
> less
> > possible.
> >
> > But I disagree that it comes down always to the documentation -- excellent
> > work and craftsmanship is the weapon with which you do battle in this
> venue.
> >   The documentation is not even always read by the judges -- and yes, we
> > should always read documentation, but people are human and sometimes they
> > don't.
> >
> > But, nonetheless, just as a chivalric fighter may prefer melees over
> > individual tourament fighting, or spear over sword-and-shield, if the
> > documentation makes your skin crawl you always have the option of entering
> > only A&S venues such as Laurels' Prize Tourney, where it's a body of work
> > display; or you can enter competitions which have the winners selected by
> > votes from the populace, etc.
> >
> > >Also, unlike combat, no one says you can not swing that way because it
> can
> > >not be proven that people swong that way in period. I have been told more
> > >than once that tatting is not period. It was started by the
> > >egyptions 2000bc, but did not enter the household of the european rich
> > >until after 1600ad, so "it is obviously not period." and there is no
> > >research done to say what it was being used for in the 3600 years
> > >between those dates.
> >
> > If you can document the art to any place and time prior to 1600, then that
> > info needs to be in the documentation for the judges.  If it is in the
> > documentation and the judges overlooked that, you need to track them down
> > and talk to the individual judge about that in detail.
> >
> > No one will tell you that you can't tat things for use in the Society, nor
> > even that you cannot enter them in A&S competitions, so your fighting
> > analogy on this one is wrong.  If you don't explain why it's period in
> your
> > documentation, though, you can't really complain if the judges base their
> > scores on what *they personally know about the art*.
> >
> > ::GUNNORA::
> >
> > (One of those Southern Ansteorran Laurels)
> >
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