Request for Ideas (Art Challenge 2010)

[Roland Martin]

Thank you all for the interest and input so far on the previous thread for the potential for an Art Challenge.

After some very helpful input from Steve, it was suggested that I start this new thread to gather input from interested members, looks like many, in order to set this up so as to work as smoothly as possible. It looks like Steve can set up a sticky for this once everything is ironed out.

The thread rating system that is set up for the forum will not work to rate individual posts, since it only rates the thread itself. My only thought so far is to do critiques & comments as we always do.

I will outline my own thoughts on the basic set-up of this challenge as a starting point for all members interested to reply with suggestions, input, rules, timeframe, etc.

FIRST & FOREMOST: THIS WILL BE AN INDIVIDUAL AND PERSONAL CHALLENGE FOR EACH OF US (BY NO MEANS A COMPETITION!!!):D

Thread/Sticky Title? "SMC Art Challenge 2010" ???


Basic Rules for the challenge:
1: Members are to submit one turning of a utilitarian piece and one turning of an art form. Both pieces must be included in the one posting in order to minimize space on the thread. Both are a meant as a self-expression of what they determine to be utilitarian and art.
2: Members will submit thier pieces to the sticky with descriptions from July 11,2010 to July 17,2010 for inclusion in the challenge. After July 17th, no further submissions will be allowed.
Comments and critiques will be allowed and encouraged until the thread retires on September 30, 2010.
3: This challenge will be an open format and not limited to any certain item or style.
4: Let's have a great time with this!

The statements & rules above are designed as a starting point, as I am seeking input by all that wish to.

Thank you very much for your anticipated suggestions & input:)

[Mike Minto]

Only newly created pieces, specifically for this 'challenge', yes? Honor code, as well?

[Roland Martin]

Yes Mike, I feel pretty strongly on having this a "current" challenge rather than having pieces turned prior to the "SMC Art Challenge 2010"

[Frank Van Atta]

As Steve Schlumpf said on the earlier thread: " . . . I hope everyone realizes that the 'Art' thread will rapidly become very difficult to navigate due to the number of entries and resulting comments. . . "

From what I've seen on other forums, this could rapidly become an incomprehensible mess. On the forum at Woodworkers Institure they have a separate area called "Competition and Challenges" set up so that each entry can exist on a separate thread. If this isn't possible here and we all have to post in the general woodturning forum, then I would suggest each entrant start a separate thread with a common indicator in the title, something like "Art Challenge 2010 - The Moons of Saturn (or whatever)" with the first part being required in order to distinguish these threads (the second part being a description of the particular entry). That would make everything easy to find on the forum and keep the discussion on each thread limited to a particular entry.

[Thom Sturgill]

+1 on what Frank said, plus I want to re-iterate the comment I made on the other thread. Have the monitors copy the original post in each submission thread to a single 'read-only' thread, or possibly copy the pictures to a single gallery.

[Roland Martin]

As Steve Schlumpf said on the earlier thread: " . . . I hope everyone realizes that the 'Art' thread will rapidly become very difficult to navigate due to the number of entries and resulting comments. . . "

From what I've seen on other forums, this could rapidly become an incomprehensible mess. On the forum at Woodworkers Institure they have a separate area called "Competition and Challenges" set up so that each entry can exist on a separate thread. If this isn't possible here and we all have to post in the general woodturning forum, then I would suggest each entrant start a separate thread with a common indicator in the title, something like "Art Challenge 2010 - The Moons of Saturn (or whatever)" with the first part being required in order to distinguish these threads (the second part being a description of the particular entry). That would make everything easy to find on the forum and keep the discussion on each thread limited to a particular entry.

Frank, as Steve and yourself are pointing out, this could be a nightmare. So far, I think your idea of each entrant submitting in thier own thread with the common title & entry description should work well. The Sticky could be used as the Art Challenge info page and rules.

Thom, the idea of a seperate photo gallery, hopefully in the Sticky, would be a fairly easy way to consolodate all the entries into a viewing gallery without the need to go through the whole forum to search them out.

I'll pose the question to Steve & get his thoughts on it

Thanks for the feedback.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Just throwing this out for comments...

What if we had a locked sticky that contained following:

1 - the rules and time frame of the Challenge
2 - a separate post for each entrant that only contains the basic info such as photos (number of shots of each TBD), name of the Artwork and a link to the actual post that folks can use to post their comments

I would think a locked sticky would work - that way only the mod has control on who gets entered and hopefully keeps things somewhat organized. Folks can then click on the link and go to that person's thread and post their comments on the work there.

Just something to think about.

I do like the idea of having the name of the Challenge as part of each thread title but we need to have something else as part of the title or the search engines will go nuts trying to sort 50 threads with the same title!

[Roland Martin]

That sounds feasable Steve, sounds like a fair amount of work for the moderator. If it works for you, it sounds like a clean way to run it. Would the name of the challenge followed by the name of the turner work? I would think that would be search engine friendly.

Thanks Steve

[Mike Golka]

Could a member type gallery be created that would hold all the pictures and comments would be added as they are now?

[Steve Schlumpf]

Roland - I would think that the name of the challenge - followed by the turner's name would work fine.

Mike - as for as I know - that would be about the same thing as creating another forum and I don't believe that is going to happen. I know we are going to upgrade to version 4 before too long - so your idea might be a possibility in the near future.

[Curt Fuller]

Just throwing this out for comments...

What if we had a locked sticky that contained following:

1 - the rules and time frame of the Challenge
2 - a separate post for each entrant that only contains the basic info such as photos (number of shots of each TBD), name of the Artwork and a link to the actual post that folks can use to post their comments

I would think a locked sticky would work - that way only the mod has control on who gets entered and hopefully keeps things somewhat organized. Folks can then click on the link and go to that person's thread and post their comments on the work there.

Just something to think about.

I do like the idea of having the name of the Challenge as part of each thread title but we need to have something else as part of the title or the search engines will go nuts trying to sort 50 threads with the same title!

That's why you're the boss! Great ideas!

[Frank Van Atta]

I think your ideas will work fine Steve.

On the title - I was proposing a common phrase such as "Art Challenge" to be included in every title so they would be easy to find, but a second phrase - title of the work, turner's name, whatever - to also be part of the title so that we could differentiate between entries and the search algorithms wouldn't be driven crazy.

[John Keeton]

Just a bump to make sure we don't all lose track of the "Challenge!" Also, I might add that perhaps we open the time window to include a little earlier time frame. Some might like to post early. I know as summer comes on, I probably will be turning less as other chores will demand some time. Also, there are vacations, etc., and someone might miss the narrow one week entry period.

I think the cutoff is fine, however.

Also, should we state that both the art and utility pieces are to be posted at the same time, in the same thread?

Thoughts?

Is the next step a sticky with the rules? Seems Roland fairly stated them, along with the last couple of thoughts from Frank and Steve.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Just wanted to let everyone know that the 'Official Rules' are now a sticky!

Check them out - should be fun!

[Toney Robertson]

Just to be different as my wife always says I am, what is different about this than any other day?

People post their pieces and others comment. Some are utilitarian, some are artsy.

Are you going to do something like - Turn something from 1 bd ft of wood, don't use sandpaper, use only a skew or some other arbitrary condition?

Why not make it a competition? We only achieve higher heights when pushed to do so.

Just asking.

Toney

[Steve Schlumpf]

what is different about this than any other day?

Toney,

For those who choose to participate - they accept the challenge of turning both an art piece and a utilitarian piece within the given time frame and then posting them together. The pieces are to represent that person's concept of each and the member gets to explain the creative idea behind each turning.

It's different from the regular day to day postings because folks have to turn 2 totally different items specifically for this event. Normally - folks post whatever happens to come off the lathe.


Why not make it a competition? We only achieve higher heights when pushed to do so.A couple of reasons come to mind - first, this could be considered a trial run and then, based on participation, could grow into different events. A lot of folks here are new to turning and have never had a show or competed. By keeping it informal we hope to get a lot more participation.

Second thing, holding a competition implies some form of judging. Nothing wrong with that but as this was the first time we have tried to do something like this - it made sense to keep it as simple as possible. Should the level of participation warrant another event - then we could look into arranging a competition.