I recently invited by Ulaan, the Three Mountains Arts and Science Minister, to be on a panel regarding A&S competitions and associated questions along with Her Excellency Eden the Mad and Mistress Fjorlief in Haga. We discussed some initial questions presented by attendees and the barony’s populace, but I found myself wanting to go into a deeper dive as far as my own commentary and provide links where applicable. I liked the question/answer format, so I’m going to stick with that and elaborate where I can. This information applies specifically to the Kingdom of An Tir.
As a preface, these are all my own, personal opinions about this! I’m very pro-competitions and have generally had very good experiences with them, so bear that in mind! I’m also happy to answer any additional questions received from the comments section.
Me (Þóra) presenting during the Three Mountain's A&S Competition Panel
Initial questions from the 3M populace (with my responses):
1.) What is an A&S competition?
Arts & Sciences competitions within the SCA are a space where you can submit a project (research, a reproduction of a historical object, documentation of a historical process, or documentation of experimental archeology (field work)) to be judged and there is a winner (or multiple winners). Bardic is often included in A&S competitions but is also often separate. Bardic can be all manner of things such as dance, musical performance, spoken word performance, visual performance, original music, original spoken word, as well as compositions for music and/or spoken word. Winners of competition may win a championship, largesse, a scroll, prizes, awards, or simply word fame – it all depends on the type of competition you enter (which is almost always described in the announcement of the competition).
A&S competitions happen at all levels of our organization from Shire/Canton/Baronial level to Kingdom level. Each competition has its own rules, requirements, and method of judgement. Many, but not all competitions use some version of the Kingdom Rubrics linked in question 3. Some competitions have topic requirements, some require multiple entries, and some require creating an object the day of the competition, so it is important to read all of the requirements about any given competition before choosing to compete.
2.) May I enter any area's competition or only the area I am local to?
It is always a good idea to check with the person running the competition if you are qualified to enter. Many competitions are open to any competitor, but certain regions may restrict entry to residents or previous competitors. Some competitions also restrict what can be entered – if it has been a competition piece previously or if it has one a competition previously, a project may be excluded from being entered again in some competitions. If you have questions or aren’t sure whether your project is a good fit or whether you are permitted to compete, always reach out and ask the competition contact. In my experience they are happy to answer all of your questions – they want you to participate if at all possible!
3.) The Rubric: What is it, how it works related to competitors?
Link to the Kingdom of An Tir Rubrics/Judging Forms: http://arts.antir.org/forms/judging-forms/
There are Rubrics for all A&S and Bardic pursuits listed in the question 1 response. In many competitions (75% or so) some form of the Kingdom rubric is used for judging A&S project entries. Generally, these rubrics are a good guideline to let the competitor know what questions they should be researching/answering and what the judges will be looking to ask regarding their project. There can be a lot there to digest, but if you take it one section at a time and make notes as to what judges might look for, it can be very helpful when you are planning your project! Competitors should definitely review these rubrics and/or whichever judging form the competition will be using. This can be requested from the person running the competition.
Generally, any rubric or judging form used will have scoring categories and a score total. This isn’t like test grades so you should throw that mindset out the window. For the Kingdom rubric specifically, I would look more at the description of each category and the scoring (usually 0-5). I think scoring a 2 or higher in any category is quite good. Getting a 5 in a category is extremely elusive so unless you are in a museum already a score of 4 is gosh darn amazing! It is good to be realistic with your expectations because there are areas where you’ll be strong and areas that you’ll probably need to work on – even the strongest competitors I know will tell you that, so don’t be discouraged if you feel like you receive a low score in an area. That’s very normal and part of the process of improving and further refining your knowledge/research.
4.) What is the general flow of a competition - maybe some examples at various levels (Shire vs Kingdom)?
Every competition is different (especially at the lower level), but most involve entering at least 1 project, displaying it, documenting it, talking about it briefly, and receiving feedback from judges. Most (but not all) shire/canton/baronial competitions require less documentation, but I believe in trying to approach all my projects with the same level of detail. That said, if you have concerns in one area of your project, presenting it at a lower level can often get you needed feedback on how to improve an area of your project so you can submit it at the next level. Some lower-level competitions can still be extremely challenging, however, and require more than one project. Stromgard’s baronial A&S competition has a storied reputation for requiring 3 entries (2 in advance and 1 the day of the competition), so definitely make certain to pick your first competition to be at a level you feel comfortable at! Seeking advice from your local A&S officers or A&S champions can help with this decision-making process, as they likely have experience and insight regarding competitions in your area.
5.) Are all competitions the same? (do competitions require the same amount of research, level of period-ness)?
I mentioned this briefly above, but no, they can be quite different! It all depends on who is putting on the competition and what type of competition it is. There are A&S competitions that have been done by popular vote (many of these are largesse competitions). I’ve participated in a Yule A&S competition where there were entry categories (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced) and prizes awarded to the winner of each category (we picked from a stack of donated prizes… I won my category and got some great wool I turned into an apron dress later!!). The Yule competition only required a 1 page sheet of documentation and had no presentation component! There are also many baronies that due a simplified version of the Kingdom A&S rubric because it is more approachable to persons looking to participate in A&S competitions (especially newcomers).
Most competitions are posted on the Kingdom A&S Facebook group, so I highly encourage you to check it out (requirements of competitions are often listed in the announcement threads, themselves): https://www.facebook.com/groups/469786296420688
6.) How does research work: What is "enough" research?
I’d argue that there’s always room for more research, but obviously that’s not always realistic (and I certainly can’t always uphold that statement, myself!). Enough for me looks like having a good grasp of evidence regarding what the rubric is asking for. For a tabletwoven band, for example, I’ll do research to answer questions like, “What are the materials/methods used to create the original period object, what tools were used, who wore/used this in history, what was its use (what clothing was it on?).” My research should sufficiently answer all of these questions, as that’s what the judges will be looking for in the rubric. Any statement you make within your documentation should be justified by your research (with a citation to your source). If you can’t find the answer to a question, you should disclose that. Sometimes we just don’t know the answer to everything, so if there isn’t an answer you can justify you can simply say that you don’t know but provide a good theory and any evidence that might back it (EX: there’s no loom evidence where your textile object was from, but there are loom weights and loom evidence from a neighboring town/similar time period).
7.) Do I have to defend my project?
It isn’t a thesis, so I wouldn’t approach it that way, but I understand where this question is coming from. The judges do ask very good and thoughtful questions. Sometimes they’ll surprise you and you’ll have no idea how to answer because you never thought about it or touched on it during your research. Sometimes they will disagree with something you asserted. In the case of the disagreement, you can only provide the evidence (research) that supports your statement and have them review it. On occasion, I’ve discovered that some authors are very unreliable sources or other known issues that I don’t know about because I had never been exposed to it.
Try to take any feedback with a grain of salt. People try to be as constructive as possible and ask you questions because they want you to extrapolate and show off your knowledge. People aren’t generally trying to catch you off-guard in area, they just want to confirm you have a generally good understanding of the topic you are presenting. This gets much easier as time moves on, but I think your first experience is always the most difficult because you don’t (at least I didn’t) have any idea what to expect as far as questions/feedback. I highly recommend doing a mock run of your presentation with someone who has judged before to get initial feedback and any jitters regarding questions out of the way!
8.) How do I plan a project?
If possible, always start your project with looking at the competition requirements and how you'll be judged (judging form/rubric). As an example, I recently participated in the Three Mountains Baronial Championship. In reading the initial competition announcement I discovered that it would require 2 entries (most competitions only require 1) and that 1 entry would have to be specific to the Silk Road as a topic. That meant I couldn’t present two existing projects as I had never done a project related to the Silk Road. The judging form (requested from the individual running the competition) was a modified version of the Kingdom A&S rubric, so I knew generally what to expect as I had competed using those forms before.
If you must submit an existing project, it is equally important to review the competition requirements and the rubric! The requirements will let you know if your entry will be accepted into the competition as it is, and the rubric will tell you what you will need to provide/demonstrate during the competition. It will also inform you of any gaps that you need to justify such as using non-period materials, tools, and/or construction.
Additional questions that I feel should be answered from my own personal history competing (with my responses):
1.) How would you describe the process of competing from project planning to finishing the competition the day of?
When I first see an announcement of an A&S competition in my area, I normally check to see how much time I have to create a project (assuming I’m not going to try and use something I have already created that hasn’t been submitted to competition). I know that it usually takes me at least 6 weeks to do a piece I’m happy with, so I won’t enter a competition if I don’t have at least 2 months of time to create and document something I’m creating. So bear in mind the length of time you’ll have to create a project, document it (usually this is a paper), create a display (how you are going to show it at the competition – see photo example below of one of my displays), and develop your presentation (I usually give a 10-15 minute summary of my documentation).
My Kingdom A&S 2020 Display (example of what a display might look like)
Typically you provide the topic of your competition entry to the individual running the competition well ahead of the competition date. You will usually send any documentation you’ve prepared (or your research paper if that is what you are entering) around a week before the event so judges have time to review it and draft questions they might have in advance of your presentation.
The day of the competition, I usually get there at least 30 minutes to an hour early to set up my display (at Kingdom A&S you normally arrive and set up the day before the event). This entails setting up your display and usually letting the person running the competition know that you are there. Most events provide a table for you to decorate and display your project on. Occasionally there are additional requirements such as attending a judging panel and/or writing a letter of intent to compete to present during court proceeding a competition.
Ideally you will know the time you are presenting at the competition in advance (or will be notified the morning of the competition). Judges will start to arrive 5-10 minutes ahead of your scheduled start time. Sometimes (but not always) a timekeeper will be present and let you know if you’ve exceeded your time allotment for presenting (15 minutes is the standard for this). This is done because there are usually additional projects that need the judges that are judging you! After the presentation, there’s usually 5 minutes allotted for judges to ask you questions about your project and/or presentation. After that, your part is done! The judges sequester privately to document their feedback and issue your score (you’ll get a packet of written feedback from the judges usually after a winner has been declared during court).
2.) How do you not feel let down when you lose?
I really want to talk about losing, because with competitions there is usually a “winner.” People by nature tend to be competitive, I’m no exception, but when I’m competing, I’ve found its unhealthy for me to make “winning” my goal. Instead, my approach to competitions is to aim for a different victory condition like sharing my art or research directly with people (captive audience) who want to receive it and to receive feedback. Usually, depending on the way we’re being judged, I also try to set a target point value I want to achieve or target feedback I want to receive and that’s my true victory condition. Honestly, showing up to a competition with a completed (or even mostly completed) project is sometimes a victory!
Competitions tend to drive me to do a more solid project than preparing for a demo or a display because there are usually topic and/or judging requirements that you need to adhere to for a competition whereas a display has more freedom and flexibility. Competition motivates me to do more difficult things or pieces outside my comfort zone to try and meet those higher requirements. Since I know I’ll have judges asking me questions that I’ll need to have the knowledge to respond to – I’ll take the time to learn more about a project, too!
If you think about competitions, people who enter are submitting wildly different types of art and research – there’s no basis of comparison outside of how things measure up on the competition rubric or judging form. I never view myself as in direct competition with anyone else’s art. I madly respect my fellow competitors (many times they are people I respect greatly and/or good friends). Frankly, there are some incredible artists in our Kingdom who are much better than I am, but how does that kind of effort stack against my research paper? It isn’t a 1:1 visual comparison, so we must rely on judging forms that factor in several different types of criteria. Just because someone wins over you doesn’t make them better at their art than you, necessarily, it just means their project best fit the criteria that was being judged. If you can keep that in mind, taking pride in your project and your score is very easy and you’ll be thrilled for your fellow competitors when they win!
There are no losers, IMO, everyone wins word fame about their art (at minimum) for participating.
3.) I’m interested in A&S and want to participate in something like a competition, but I don’t really have a craft area I’m good at yet, is there a way for me to still do something?
I encourage anyone that doesn’t yet have a craft or an area of interest to consider doing a report style research paper on something they’d like to know more about. I would start by determining an area of interest like, “Daily life in 12th Century Uppsala” and then looking at the Research Paper Rubric to determine what kinds of questions you should be asking about that topic. A good start would be things like, “describe the people who lived there in period, what goods did they create/trade for, what professions were common/present, what is the city’s history/layout, are there archeological finds from that period, what history proceeded that led to events in that period, and how did the geographical location influence the area historically?”
This sort of activity increases your personal knowledge and conveys that knowledge to others. It also helps you determine if that’s an area of interest that you would like to continue to investigate.
Regardless of whether or not you end up submitting your research for a competition – you’ll have it to draw on if you ever need to speak on the topic or use that information to justify/support a different project!
4.) How good at my craft do I have to be to enter a competition?
A portion of your score is usually related to your technical execution of an object (if you are submitting an object to a competition), however, it is far from the only component. Your technical level isn’t the sole determiner of your success by any means, though if you are weak in an area, you should strive to be strong in a different area (like presenting, displaying, or documenting your project). A low score in one area will not necessarily result in a bad or low score for the overall project. It should also be noted that even the very best crafters and researchers can have low scores in certain areas of their projects – consider it an area that you may need to work on (we all have room for improvement in some area of our work).
5.) Where can I find a sample paper or template to look at how to format my A&S documentation? Is there an expected citation/bibliography format?
I have several papers pinned to the top of this blog (http://tabletweavingfun.blogspot.com/2021/04/authored-by-ora-researchdocumentation.html ) that you can use as examples of different types of documentation (including a research paper I submitted to a competition). My friend Tullia also provided me a link to one of her blog articles about documentation I was first starting out my research process. Please check it out if you need a good starting outline: https://romanasum.com/2015/02/08/writing-documentation/
For bibliography/citations, I generally try to be consistent whether its MLA, Chicago or APA style (https://pitt.libguides.com/citationhelp), but I’ve found that most judges are fairly forgiving regarding how you do this as long as there is a bibliography, and they can tell where your information is coming from. The most important piece of documentation is that if you make a statement regarding an object, process, etc. that it be founded in evidence, so you’ll need papers, articles, photographs etc. that justifies your statement as a fact OR an acceptable theory.
EXAMPLE: “This tabletwoven band was created with 20 cards as detailed by an archeological accounting.1” – 1 would be your citation or reference listed on the same page and/or in the bibliography. You can also say, “This tabletwoven band was created with 20 cards as evidenced by the visible S/Z thread lines in the referenced photograph totaling 20.” This is a pictorial reference, but it is you that’s doing the counting from the photo (not someone else’s documentation). Both are acceptable in my experience; you just need to be clear about where the justification is coming from.
6.) Where the heck are people finding all these research articles, I’m not sure what to even search for?
That’s a really great question and it is one I’ve struggled with myself. Before setting off on your own to hunt down articles on a topic, I would attempt to connect with other people and groups (Facebook, websites, reddit, blogs etc.) that may research and/or explore a similar area. Since I’m a weaver, I’ve joined several Facebook groups related to the type of weaving I do. Most of those groups have a repository of links, articles, and hundreds to thousands of helpful individuals just waiting to answer some of your questions.
We also have many resources available to us in the SCA A&S community. If there is a Laurel or another individual that does an art or science similar to your interest, I encourage you to reach out to them to see if they have recommendations of books, articles etc. that may start your down the right path on your project. Even asking useful terms to search for on google is a step in the right direction.
Use your google search to remove pinterest links (-pinterest) – pinterest can be helpful sometimes if it links you back to a good source, but 95% of the time it doesn’t. This search style will help you get more solid source results when you search for things. Don’t be afraid to look at Wikipedia – sometimes the bibliography section will have multiple articles that help you peruse a topic further (and those articles will also reference additional articles and so on).
Definitely look at free sites like http://academia.edu (this will spam your email, but is free). A lot of academic papers can be found there on a variety of subjects and you can set it to email you regarding your subject of interest. Utilizing your local library and having a librarian request a book for you is also a possibility (if you have a good library system).
7.) I’m very afraid my art will be picked apart during the judging process and this has given me a lot of reservations about competitions, what has been your experience and/or how have you dealt with this?
I’ve had quite a few people confide in me that this is their #1 biggest fear about competitions. Art is highly personal and people put tons and tons of effort into it – I totally understand why people have reservations about receiving any negative feedback regarding their work.
One of the largest issues I’ve seen is how people approach competitions. It is surprisingly quite difficult to submit a project that wasn’t planned for competition because, more than likely, your mindset in creating it wasn’t for it to be judged, but for people to enjoy it as art! Competitions that use the Kingdom’s rubric or a variant, provide points for historical tools/materials/construction methods/patterning/documentation of your process/research etc. – obviously these things aren’t always possible to do (even if you are planning a project for competition), but if you are submitting to compete you should be trying to do as much of this a possible and justifying what isn’t possible (while demonstrating why you are deviating and that you have the knowledge of how something was actually done). As an example – I weave a lot of things on an inkle loom because I learned to weave on one and it is still comfortable for me to use. There are period looms and backstrap period style weaving (that doesn’t require a loom), so it is hard for me to justify why I didn’t use a more period technique if I’m trying to enter something I’ve already made on an inkle loom. If I had planned a project specifically for competition, I wouldn’t use an inkle loom in the first place because I’d be trying to create an object in a historical manner. This is just an example of how planning for competition can avoid losing points for these types of items.
I’ve also found that people can be surprised that aesthetics are weighted equally with historical knowledge/reproduction of the object. You can create a truly beautiful item, but a person may have not explored the history around making the item or how it existed in historical context. It doesn’t change the fact that the artist created a truly stunning piece, all it reflects is a gap in expressing knowledge surrounding its history and creation.
I’ve often found that the objects reproduced often get high scores/praises for their appearance but lose points in some of the areas I’ve mentioned above. The disappointment usually surrounds low overall scores in areas surrounding historical accuracy. At this time, most competitions are strongly geared towards this component, however, there are competitions where winners are determined by aesthetics and popular vote also. If you would prefer a competition more geared towards the appearance of your work, I would strongly recommend those vs. competitions that strive for historical accuracy, research, and documentation.
All of this said, I have heard that some individuals feel like the person judging them does not have the expertise in their area to judge their project and/or individuals have experienced derogatory comments about their art. I’ve personally never experienced this, but if I ever disagreed with a judge’s statement, I would try to sit with them after the competition to discuss their comment further/provide additional evidence. If someone said something negatively regarding my work that I felt was offensive, I’d try to use conflict resolution language like, “Let me pause for a moment to address your comment ‘Your weaving is at a rudimentary level and you should not have entered,’ that statement hurt my feelings and I want to understand what you mean by that.” I’ve found that it is usually never someone’s intent to cause someone to personally feel bad, but if for some reason I was faced with that, I’d discuss it with the person conducting the competition and/or the officer in charge of the event.
8.) I’m very uncomfortable with one aspect of the competition (presenting, research, display) – can I still compete if I have a barrier?
Me too and yes! I have a lot of social anxiety surrounding presenting and public speaking. In many cases I notify my judges in advance that I have this issue, so they are aware if I stop or pause for a moment to recollect my thoughts. Likewise, if you have dyslexia or an issue with drafting a formal paper it never hurts to reach out and let the competition lead know. At minimum, I’ve found that your judges will be notified so that they can understand where you might have a challenge. You may still be deducted points, but I find their feedback to be much more helpful than it would be if you didn’t disclose your challenge with an aspect of the competition.
This isn’t a requirement, and you certainly aren’t required to share this level of personal information, but I’ve found that it can be helpful if the people around you understand your situation and what you find especially challenging.
9.) Can I see what it is like to be a judge prior to competing in a competition?
Absolutely! Most competitions are hungry for judges! There is a Kingdom level judging class that
takes place every year at Kingdom A&S that is an outstanding primer on how
to judge A&S competitions. Locally,
persons running events will usually always accept student judges (judges in
training). Being a student judge will
familiarize you with the process of judging competitions and give you an
initial feel for how the competition flow works. Before I entered my first Kingdom A&S I
signed up as a student judge for a Bardic performance (I play several
instruments mundanely, so I felt it would be a good fit). It was really fun, and I learned a lot about
the process; additionally, I also wasn’t as nervous when I entered my first
competition because I knew how things generally went!
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If you got to the end here, congratulations and thank you for taking the time to read this article! It is my earnest hope that any questions or concerns surrounding competitions be addressed, because it really can be a lot of fun and a great SCA experience. I hope to see you all on the A&S competition circuit soon as a judge or a fellow competitor!
