judging criteria

["Roger S. Miller" <rgrmill@rt66.com>]

James,

I've given some thought to how judges might score the entries. I guess I'd
like to see the system based on some basic components in graphic art.  
Someone on APD listed some of the basics from photography but for our
purposes we could limit judging to a shorter set.  Something like:

Concept - (partly dependent on the contestant's written description of the
tank) Does the entry have an evident intent, an organized purpose,
or not?  Scored 1-5.

Composition - Is the entry layed out in a pleasing manner, does it
effectively support the concept?  Scored 1-5.

Execution - Do the plants appear to be established, healthy, and
well-maintained?  Scored 1-5.

Appeal - Is the overall effect appealing to the eye?  Scored 1-5.


Using a range of scores larger than 1-5 might be a good thing if we end up
with a lot of entries.  The top end (5 in my example) need not be decided
until after we know how many entries there are.  The lower the number, the
easier it is to judge; the higher the number, the bigger the spread will
be between the best and worst entries.

With scores in hand, the entries could be graded "on the curve",
something like:

better than 90% - Highest rating (superior?)
better than 60% up to 90% - Good but not among the best (excellent?)
less than 60% - We enjoyed having you here (honorable?)

The actual numeric score need never be released (someone like me who
scores 4 on a scale of 4 to 20 might appreciate that). Judges don't *have*
to comment, but comments are much appreciated.

Note that fish (shrimp, frogs, snails, turtles, water snakes, etc) are not
concidered in my criteria.  They might fit under a question like "Do the
animals (if present) compliment the composition?"  Otherwise I don't see
that the animals have much to do with aquascaping.  It seems like it would
be difficult to make such a consideration from photographs of live
animals.  That would be more a matter of photography than of aquascaping.

If we could find some written guidelnes for jurying (is that a word?) an
art show, that might be a useful example.


Roger


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