Thoughts (X2)

["James Purchase" <jpurch@interlog.com>]

Thank you George, for your input. You don't _have_ to be an AGA member to
participate. Many people here are not

I think that AGA sponsorship is important, but have deliberately sought
input from a wider audience. My initial thoughts for how this might work/be
accomplished/be received have not changed much - I want something which is
as open and flexible as possible, as "entrant friendly" as possible, as
comprehensive (at least as far as it's pool of potential entrants is
concerned) as possible. I would like this to be a sort of "snapshot" of the
state of aquascaping, in countries around the world, at this point in time.
Notice please. that I did NOT say state of the art.

I am not so concerned with this being a Contest, nor with the fear you
expressed about "Novices" vs. "Experts". Please see my post in the Archives
(http://lists.thekrib.com/aga-contest/) "Artistic vs. Mechanical" - July 15,
for my $20.00 on that topic. If we structure this (or even if we keep
_thinking_ of this) as a traditional "Contest", I fear that it will never
happen, or if it does it will be a dismal failure. This must be an inclusive
arena where _all_ feel welcome, irrespective of age, experience level in the
hobby, or skill.

Not that I'm envisioning a "free for all", far from it. As this is the first
time (that I am aware of, and I have been around for quite a while) that
something like this has been attempted, I think it would be a mistake on our
part, at least this time around, to limit ourselves, the contest or our
potential entrants, by setting in stone a series of artificial and
preconceived "Categories". See my comment above - ["snapshot" of the state
of aquascaping]. We don't KNOW what that "state" is yet - that's why I
suggested this in the first place.

We design the event, get it accredited (by the AGA), decide on a time frame
and a date, make the announcement in as many venues as possible, and hope to
God that _someone_ sends in a submission. If necessary, we proselytize like
crazy, in as many places and as many countries, as we can.

Once we have the entries in hand and scanned into a computer, _then_ we can
set to work sorting them out. I've already described the physical process of
_how_ we could do it in one of my earlier posts. But the "Categories" we
sort by could be any number of ways - we could do it by Country (how do
Americans/Canadians compare to Europeans?) or region of a Country (i.e. how
do Bostonians do it as compared to Californians?). We could do it by
Experience level (such information can be requested of each entrant, on an
honor system). We could do it along sizes of set-up, regardless of other
concerns. Or we could even do it along traditional "Categories" lines, as a
lot of people seem to favor.

My point being, that this IS NOT a traditional event. All images will be in
electronic format, stored on a hard drive. Using the miracle of software, we
can make "thumbnails" of each image which take up very little storage space
and can be downloaded quickly even over a phone line. In our "exhibit area",
which will exist only as a Web-site in Cyber Space, we can set up virtual
"rooms" where like "thumbnails" can be grouped together and displayed using
browser software. Each thumbnail can be hyper-linked to the larger, more
detailed image so that when clicked upon it calls up that image and displays
it in a separate window on the viewer's monitor.

The SAME image (or entry) can have _multiple_ thumbnails existing in any
number of separate virtual "rooms" of our exhibit space. They don't take up
enough physical space on the hard drive to require us to restrict this.The
same _original_ image can thus be viewed in multiple contexts and compared
to multiple other entries. In this way, the viewer can experience the images
in various ways, and compare them in various ways, to suit _their_
prejudices and _not_ ours.

I just don't like the idea of constraining this. Or of shoehorning it into a
traditional, preconceived structure.

The beauty and the power of the WWW (and I think there is an epistle on
_that_ in the Archives as well) is that it frees the viewer from traditional
structure. You don't _have _ to start at page 1 and move sequentially
through to page 10 - you can hyper-jump into another universe altogether if
you wish, at any time. The experience is yours to create. Imagine the
freedom, imagine the power.

It is quite clear to me, from reading the many posts which have been made,
that I am the only one who sees this in this way. My job right now, as I see
it, is to effect a paradigm shift (sorry for the word, but it is the correct
term) in the thinking of everyone here. STOP thinking along traditional
lines. This is Cyber Space, NOT the municipal arena where your local club
holds its contests. We don't HAVE to do this the old way.

"Our goal is to explore new worlds, new civilizations, to boldly go where
no-one has gone before..."

Sorry for the flight of fantasy... I know that I do get carried away at
times. But the potential of this idea excites me so much, and could be such
a "blast" for the entrants and the viewers, that I just can't help myself.
and it IS possible to do it, if ONLY people would let go of their reliance
of how things have been done in the past.

James Purchase
Toronto

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