My thoughts following Caidan Art-Sci Fair
I had initially thought about posting this on the Caid laurel list until I realized it is really a much larger conversation. But if I put it on the Kingdom page, I bet that eventually the social media officer would thwack me on the nose (again) for expressing my opinion and getting people fired up. (aka the Spurtle Curse!) So, to minimize any inadvertent big booms, I am posting this here in my journal on my own FB page, and I would like to invite discussion about something that is rather near and dear to my heart - SCA arts and competition.
Having just come back from Caidan Arts and Sciences Fair, my mind has been spinning with thoughts and ideas. But before I discuss any of them, I want to make something very clear. I have NO criticisms on how the event itself was run. Au contraire, I think Mistress Caterucia and crew did an outstanding job. Arts and Sciences fairs, by their nature, are a beeeyotch to run. It is easy to forget little (but critically important) details, and hard as heck to stay organized with so many moving parts, people, and personalities. How this particular event is run is not my focus in this post. Rather, it is the form of the competition itself.
“Pentathlon” by definition is a specific competition where the entrant must submit at least “five entries spanning at least four categories. Those categories are as follows: Visual, Functional, Armor & Weaponry, Fiber, Culinary, Performance, Compositional”. To the best of my knowledge, that is what we have done here in Caid for quite a long time. (twenty years? Thirty? More?) Now, this form of competition does have its pluses. It challenges entrants to broaden their artistic horizons by trying things outside of their comfort zones. OK, fine. I totally get that. And as an A.D.D. artist myself, I kinda appreciate that simply because my focus (or lack thereof) is typically all over the place. Thus, people like me have a natural advantage. But bearing that in mind, here is my question - Is repeating this specific form of art-challenge every two years over and over and over necessarily the best thing for Caidan artists?
I know that many people out there are not fond of change. And I get that - I am not typically a fan of change, either. And I’ll be the first to say that if a process ain’t broke, I don’t believe in trying to fix it. But I DO think we should always ask ourselves the question - are we doing it this way because this is what we actually WANT and because it really is the BEST? Or are we doing it this way because, “that’s the way we’ve always done it?”
Personally, I think it is time to shake things up and to change the form of the competition. Why? Well, for a lot of reasons. For one, sometimes we need change to shake things up a little and to give us something new and fresh and different. But for another, I think we need to recognize that the challenge of Pentathlon in its current form is only one form of art challenge, but not one that is necessarily equitable in exhibiting people’s strengths. What do I mean by that? Let me give you an example. Take, for instance, a cook. Even if your only interest in historical art is cooking, there is a HUGE, HUGE, HUGE amount of study one could do. One can study cooking of different countries and different time periods. One could learn different techniques. One could geek out just over the type of equipment. One could focus just on food sculpture. Etc. There is a huge amount of things one could do just within the massive arena of cooking, and I don’t know anybody out there at all who can do equally well at everything. But Pentathlon, by its current definition, does nothing for the foodie artist who wants to show his/her breadth within this field (or any other specific field). Sure, you can enter the arts fair. But you cannot use your mastery in lots of cooking projects to compete.
So if we were to, say, either replace Pentathlon or even have some other form of competition/s side-by-side with pentathlon, what else might we do? Here, in no particular order, are some random ideas that I have which are all feasible and all have their own strengths and weaknesses:
1. Best overall journeyman Score: Allow entrants to enter one entry in any subcategory, with as many entries as he/she would like to enter. Tally up all scores that received AT LEAST a 60. Highest overall score wins.
2. “Draw 8”: at the end of the fair, the event steward draws subcategories from a hat. Those eight will be the target categories for the next fair. The randomness of the draw is such that a few subcategories might all fall under one category. So what? The randomness is what makes it new and fun and fresh. Best score of entries entered in the 8 special draw categories wins.
3. Depth-based entry: The entrant enters one finished display item. But that one thing reflects going as far as the period artist could go. (e.g. an illuminated scroll where the artist prepared the parchment, ground the pigments, made the ink, calligraphed, illuminated, gilded, etc.; or a Viking outfit where the entrant wove the fabric, hand-sewed the outfit, made the beads or metal accessories, etc.) Possibly, instead of a competition, this could be a special recognition given to more than one entry nominated by judges and vetted by the laurels. If a large majority of the vetting team concludes that the one entry reflects going as far as one can go, it can receive special recognition.
4. Theme challenge: A particular theme for the fair could be announced in advance (e.g. Battle of Hastings, the Mary Rose, the discovery of the New World, etc.), and entrants will be challenged to enter items all tied in with that particular theme.
5. Applied science focus: Yes, woad gives blue. But it also gives many shades of blue (or even other colors, depending on what you do). This type of competition could focus on using period data and conducting various experiments to try and come up with just the right formula to simulate what was done within a specific time/place.
6. Extrapolation focus: Within history, we have a lot of holes (e.g. not every specific time/place has an extant cookbook, for instance) This competition would focus on the not just the finished entry, but the process that the artist used to work with the existing hints and pieces from history to extrapolate what may very well likely have been done.
7. Rose champion: In honor of the Order of the Rose, entries should incorporate roses. (this could be a fun thing to do at a Festival of the Rose, actually).
8. Replication: Best overall entry that exactly reproduces some extant piece.
9. Originality: NOT a replication or reproduction, this is for the best overall entry that is a completely original design/recipe/creation; but documented such that it absolutely could have existed that way within history.
10. Category champions: Within the specific category, the person with the highest score because the champion of (compositional, performance, etc.)
The ideas above are just a few possibilities. And by no means do I believe that they are all necessarily better or worse than the current Pentathlon competition. What they are, however, is something different.
So now, I invite your thoughts. What do YOU think? Do you think we should keep pentathlon as it is currently? Or should we change the competition to something else? If you like one (or more than one) of the above, tell me why. If instead, you have an entirely different idea, great! Propose it!
But I have three requests before anybody starts typing. Please…
… be NICE!
… be CONSTRUCTIVE!
… be RESPECTFUL!
The people who work their butts off putting on these events deserve that.
The Order of the Laurel, who constantly come under fire for not being able to please all the artists all the time, deserve that.
And above all, the artists who are brave enough to put forward their art to be critiqued deserve that!
Having just come back from Caidan Arts and Sciences Fair, my mind has been spinning with thoughts and ideas. But before I discuss any of them, I want to make something very clear. I have NO criticisms on how the event itself was run. Au contraire, I think Mistress Caterucia and crew did an outstanding job. Arts and Sciences fairs, by their nature, are a beeeyotch to run. It is easy to forget little (but critically important) details, and hard as heck to stay organized with so many moving parts, people, and personalities. How this particular event is run is not my focus in this post. Rather, it is the form of the competition itself.
“Pentathlon” by definition is a specific competition where the entrant must submit at least “five entries spanning at least four categories. Those categories are as follows: Visual, Functional, Armor & Weaponry, Fiber, Culinary, Performance, Compositional”. To the best of my knowledge, that is what we have done here in Caid for quite a long time. (twenty years? Thirty? More?) Now, this form of competition does have its pluses. It challenges entrants to broaden their artistic horizons by trying things outside of their comfort zones. OK, fine. I totally get that. And as an A.D.D. artist myself, I kinda appreciate that simply because my focus (or lack thereof) is typically all over the place. Thus, people like me have a natural advantage. But bearing that in mind, here is my question - Is repeating this specific form of art-challenge every two years over and over and over necessarily the best thing for Caidan artists?
I know that many people out there are not fond of change. And I get that - I am not typically a fan of change, either. And I’ll be the first to say that if a process ain’t broke, I don’t believe in trying to fix it. But I DO think we should always ask ourselves the question - are we doing it this way because this is what we actually WANT and because it really is the BEST? Or are we doing it this way because, “that’s the way we’ve always done it?”
Personally, I think it is time to shake things up and to change the form of the competition. Why? Well, for a lot of reasons. For one, sometimes we need change to shake things up a little and to give us something new and fresh and different. But for another, I think we need to recognize that the challenge of Pentathlon in its current form is only one form of art challenge, but not one that is necessarily equitable in exhibiting people’s strengths. What do I mean by that? Let me give you an example. Take, for instance, a cook. Even if your only interest in historical art is cooking, there is a HUGE, HUGE, HUGE amount of study one could do. One can study cooking of different countries and different time periods. One could learn different techniques. One could geek out just over the type of equipment. One could focus just on food sculpture. Etc. There is a huge amount of things one could do just within the massive arena of cooking, and I don’t know anybody out there at all who can do equally well at everything. But Pentathlon, by its current definition, does nothing for the foodie artist who wants to show his/her breadth within this field (or any other specific field). Sure, you can enter the arts fair. But you cannot use your mastery in lots of cooking projects to compete.
So if we were to, say, either replace Pentathlon or even have some other form of competition/s side-by-side with pentathlon, what else might we do? Here, in no particular order, are some random ideas that I have which are all feasible and all have their own strengths and weaknesses:
1. Best overall journeyman Score: Allow entrants to enter one entry in any subcategory, with as many entries as he/she would like to enter. Tally up all scores that received AT LEAST a 60. Highest overall score wins.
2. “Draw 8”: at the end of the fair, the event steward draws subcategories from a hat. Those eight will be the target categories for the next fair. The randomness of the draw is such that a few subcategories might all fall under one category. So what? The randomness is what makes it new and fun and fresh. Best score of entries entered in the 8 special draw categories wins.
3. Depth-based entry: The entrant enters one finished display item. But that one thing reflects going as far as the period artist could go. (e.g. an illuminated scroll where the artist prepared the parchment, ground the pigments, made the ink, calligraphed, illuminated, gilded, etc.; or a Viking outfit where the entrant wove the fabric, hand-sewed the outfit, made the beads or metal accessories, etc.) Possibly, instead of a competition, this could be a special recognition given to more than one entry nominated by judges and vetted by the laurels. If a large majority of the vetting team concludes that the one entry reflects going as far as one can go, it can receive special recognition.
4. Theme challenge: A particular theme for the fair could be announced in advance (e.g. Battle of Hastings, the Mary Rose, the discovery of the New World, etc.), and entrants will be challenged to enter items all tied in with that particular theme.
5. Applied science focus: Yes, woad gives blue. But it also gives many shades of blue (or even other colors, depending on what you do). This type of competition could focus on using period data and conducting various experiments to try and come up with just the right formula to simulate what was done within a specific time/place.
6. Extrapolation focus: Within history, we have a lot of holes (e.g. not every specific time/place has an extant cookbook, for instance) This competition would focus on the not just the finished entry, but the process that the artist used to work with the existing hints and pieces from history to extrapolate what may very well likely have been done.
7. Rose champion: In honor of the Order of the Rose, entries should incorporate roses. (this could be a fun thing to do at a Festival of the Rose, actually).
8. Replication: Best overall entry that exactly reproduces some extant piece.
9. Originality: NOT a replication or reproduction, this is for the best overall entry that is a completely original design/recipe/creation; but documented such that it absolutely could have existed that way within history.
10. Category champions: Within the specific category, the person with the highest score because the champion of (compositional, performance, etc.)
The ideas above are just a few possibilities. And by no means do I believe that they are all necessarily better or worse than the current Pentathlon competition. What they are, however, is something different.
So now, I invite your thoughts. What do YOU think? Do you think we should keep pentathlon as it is currently? Or should we change the competition to something else? If you like one (or more than one) of the above, tell me why. If instead, you have an entirely different idea, great! Propose it!
But I have three requests before anybody starts typing. Please…
… be NICE!
… be CONSTRUCTIVE!
… be RESPECTFUL!
The people who work their butts off putting on these events deserve that.
The Order of the Laurel, who constantly come under fire for not being able to please all the artists all the time, deserve that.
And above all, the artists who are brave enough to put forward their art to be critiqued deserve that!