[Ansteorra] A&S

[gail young]

I can't tell you all the cool stuff I have learned by judging and/or viewing A&S competitions.  The stuff is cool, yea, but the part I really enjoy is talking to the artisans and reading the documentation so I can know what they know.
  gwyneth
  (proud Laurel to Count Gunthar)

Michael Gunter <countgunthar at hotmail.com> wrote:
  
>I am in full agreement with Cariadoc of the Bow's comments
>and opinions on this. There should NOT be a > requirement for DOCUMENTATION.. for your artwork.
I admire HG Cariadoc a great deal and he has had a major impact
on authenticity in the SCA. Now, with that disclaimer out of the
way I must humbly disagree on certain points.

I do agree that A&S competitions, per se, are non-period but as
long as two people have done an art there have been competitions
on who did the best. To become a Journeyman or Master in a guild
you had to pass inspection and competition.

Now, everyone getting together and putting out their wares for a
discussion on whether or not this is not only skillful but also period
is not a historical phenomenon but neither is that a qualification at
the State Fair.

But I do find documentation to be a necessary evil in A&S. For
too long recreationists have been under the burden of "But EVERYBODY
KNOWS that ". 
I judge documentation first at A&S and the piece second. Why? Because
I want to know if what I'm looking at is something as close to what
a person of the time would recognize as possible. I also want to know
if the person who created the item understands what he or she is
displaying or simply following a recipe or pattern.

Yes, A&S is indeed a place to write papers as well as show off your
skill. I've judged dishes where the only documentation is a recipe. 
That doesn't show you know anything about what people in period
ate, only that you can follow a modern recipe. And how do you know
the dish is even remotely period or is it just "peri-oid"?

People enter the SCA or history with totally preconcieved notions and
many of them have to be rather firmly unstuck. Knight didn't go around
wearing armor all the time. Food wasn't heavily spiced to cover the 
taste of rotted meat. People actually took baths during much of the
period. Cotton wasn't worn. Etc.....

A&S displays not only skill but knowlege. I may really admire your
lathe turned wooden goblet and really appreciate your skill. But I
also want to know that lathe turned goblets were used during period
and where you got the information from.

> One thing I haven't really seen at the few events we have
>attended so far here in Ansteorra, are people sitting at their
>campsites actually making things.. other than a few merchants
>who do stuff at their booths or an occassional lady > seamstress doing something while watching fighting and such.
>Both in Atlantia and Drachenwald at every event people were
>all over doing their actual crafts.. 

I think that would be neat as well. And also an area where 
documentation isn't required. Arts should be that, but the artist
should also be able to talk about how this was used in history.

> Maire O'Halowrane
Count Gunthar Jonsson
Apprentice to Mistress Gwyneth Blackrose and Mistress Clara von Ulm
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