[SCA-BMDL] New Post On Storfrettir: Spotlight: A&S Activities at Events

Fri Dec 15 16:31:46 EST 2017

Well, silly me, yes of course that email reply was supposed to go to
Odrianna, sorry for the waste of bandwidth.

Still -- This is a great article defining the types of A&S displays and
competitions that we hold. Just like many of our activities here in the
Barony, it is a manageable task for a newcomer to organize and run,
especially with a little help from an adviser or mentor. I echo Odrianna's
suggestions and offers of guidance and aid, and you can contact either of
us at jenn(dot)strobel(at)gmail(dot)com or
elss(dot)of(dot)augsburg(at)gmail(dot)com. Both of us are always willing to
talk A&S!

BTW -- I'll be at the Auction of Highly Desirable Items this year if you
want to chat!

Hope to see you at 12th Night --
Elss

On Fri, Dec 15, 2017 at 4:16 PM, Elss Augsburg <elss.of.augsburg at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Odrianna -- This is a very nicely written article that explains this very
> well. While i am hopeful that this will bring in many volunteers to run A&S
> displays, I would have preferred that you had made me the contact
> person/mentor/adviser or at least listed my contact info in addition to
> your own, as I have been talking about this very subject to people and
> would not like to confuse anyone. Don't worry about it though as I will
> have other articles in the future that clarify this.
>
> Thanks, Elß
>
> On Sun, Nov 26, 2017 at 12:26 PM, Stórfréttir Updates <
> admin at debatablelands.org> wrote:
>
>> There is new Baronial News at the Stórfréttir!
>>
>> Spotlight: A&S Activities at Events
>>
>>
>>
>> The Seneschal’s Spotlight is a monthly feature that highlights an aspect
>> of the Barony and/or its people.
>>
>> At our recent Harvest Revel, there was a bid for an event called "Tavern
>> in the Park" to be held on 10 February 2018, which is meant to encourage
>> newer participants in the BMDL to volunteer to be in charge of the various
>> aspects of making an event happen. What the autocrat, THLady Elß, is
>> looking for are people who have considered volunteering to help run
>> something at an event, but were nervous to do so. One of the areas that is
>> looking for leadership is for an A&S activity like a competition, display,
>> etc. You would have a mentor to help you navigate this role (me) and could
>> choose from any form that appeals to you.
>>
>> First, let's talk about why doing something like this is meaningful to
>> what we do in the Arts and! Sciences. Displaying your work in any context
>> serves a few purposes; getting feedback on your work so you can improve
>> your work, talking to people who do similar things, stretching yourself to
>> the next level of achievement in your art or science, being able to show
>> your incredibly cool thing to other people, and familiarizing people with
>> your particular talent. For some people, having a deadline is what drives
>> them to complete a particular project, for other people a deadline makes
>> them crazy and they’d rather just finish things as they finish them. Not
>> every venue is perfect for every artisan so it's best to focus on what is
>> going to be most beneficial for your particular group or that works best
>> with how you, personally, find benefit as it's easier to encourage people
>> to join you in something when it's something that you personally care about.
>>
>> There are four modes of showing your work that are used most frequently
>> in Æthelmearc, and all have their adv! antages and disadvantages. These
>> advantages and disadvantages! are completely related to how the individual
>> likes to show their work. There is no perfect mode, and there is no perfect
>> situation that will suit absolutely everyone. This is not a definitive list
>> and there are other forms of doing this, these are the ones that may be
>> most familiar to you from attending events.
>>
>> The first venue is a competition. In a competition, there are winners and
>> losers, and those who enter an item are there to do their best and to score
>> as highly as possible within their category. This is the kind of venue that
>> I personally prefer because the competitive aspect of it appeals to me and
>> makes me stretch my skills, but, as stated earlier, this doesn't mean that
>> it's a good choice for everyone. There are different kinds of competitions,
>> most of which have some kind of theme (either in keeping with the overall
>> theme of the event, or focusing on a specific time frame) and may have a
>> limited set of categories that one can create entries for. ! There are also
>> larger more involved competitions such as the Ice Dragon Pentathalon that
>> have very broad categories and a number of categories that an item can be
>> entered under.
>>
>> The second venue is the A&S Display. This is a non-competitive
>> environment that is geared towards showing work that is being done by local
>> Artisans and Scientists. As the name implies, you display your work along
>> with any documentation that you may have so that people can look at what
>> you’ve been doing. This is done without the presence of the artisan or
>> scientist.
>>
>> The third venue is the Artisan’s Forum. The Forum is a lot like the
>> Display, but ideally involves the person sitting with their work and
>> talking about what they’ve done or answering questions. It’s an opportunity
>> for people to talk more in-depth about their work and what they’ve been
>> learning in an environment that is more of a dialog between people than a
>> competition or display. This provides the gre! atest opportunity for an
>> artisan to really educate people abou! t what th! ey’re doing, especially
>> if it’s something very new to the person visiting your display.
>>
>> The final venue is the "Artisans' Playtime", this is when an artist or
>> scientist puts together an interactive display where people can sit down
>> and actually learn how to do your particular art or science. This,
>> obviously, lends itself to more interactive arts and sciences, so it isn't
>> suitable for all disciplines. The benefit to something like this is that
>> anyone can participate. At one Artisans' Playtime my then six-year-old
>> daughter had a table where you could look through books with various
>> illuminated pieces and use those to make a bookmark (or not). It was was a
>> good way to get an introduction to medieval illuminated manuscripts in a
>> way that was fun and entirely at the pace of the person participating. I've
>> seen people do make-and-take projects for leatherworking, embroidery, and
>> even sewing. It is my preferred mode of sharing skills and information as
>> it's so inte! ractive.
>>
>> There are advantages and disadvantages to each of these venues, and which
>> venue you prefer is entirely personal, there is no “One True A&S Venue”
>> that answers to all comfortability levels and addresses all of the needs of
>> every artisan and scientist in the Kingdom.
>>
>> Now that you've had the opportunity to read about a few of the different
>> ways that you can create a venue for people to share their work, please
>> consider if creating this kind of opportunity is for you. If you're
>> interested, please contact me, Odriana, at jenn(dot)strobel(at)gmail(dot)com.
>> I would act as your mentor, which means that I am there to help you decide
>> what form is most appealing to you and then making sure that you have the
>> materials to be successful.
>>
>> Even if this event is not well timed for you, please consider perhaps
>> running an A&S venue at another event. If you need a mentor, I am happy to
>> be that for you. Even if you just need someone to walk through ! the
>> process with you to decide whether or not this is somethin! g that yo! u'd
>> like to do, please contact me.
>>
>>
>> -----
>>
>> To see this post on the Stórfréttir, click here:
>> http://debatablelands.org/blog/?p=1147.
>>
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>>
>>
>
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