About the By Hand Digital Jury System
an open letter from Jay Snyder
How did it happen?
In January 2004 I read an article that stated Kodak would discontinue the manufacture of slide projectors that October. It was no huge surprise, but presened a few problems. No one had conducted a digital jury yet, slides were "just how it was done." I began working on the new digital system, but there were some things I just couldn't figure out how to get to work. I wanted a system that was not only as good as the old slide system, but better. I knew something had to change eventually, but the projectors still worked, and the artists still had slides. What was the rush?
Last year I started hearing from artists who could no longer find slide processing where they lived. The rush was on, and in the background we began work. I had slated debut of the system for the 2008 fairs, but I heard from more and more artists without slides this year, and in a stroke of brilliance, the last major barrier to implementation fell in May. So why not? We are extending the 2007 deadline to July 18, and we will conduct a second jury using the new system.
Why not ZAPP or JAS?
Well, that certainly would have been easier. Unfortunately, not only was it incredibly expensive, but there were things I thought we could do better.
- it requires less equipment (expense)
- it is a product, not a service. We own it, it doesn't own us
- we can display the slide descriptions with the slides, giving the jury a fuller picture of the artist
- the image database is locally stored and we can get at it any time
I don't really expect that you understand how important that last one is, so let me explain. By Hand is committed to the enforcement of our rules. A show never goes by that I don't have to reference a set of slides to determine whether one of our "artists" is accurately representing themselves. I need the images to be there for me on the show floor to take such an active role. Because the images are tied to our database, all I have to do is type in the artist name or booth number, and I have a record of what they submitted.
How do you standardize image quality?
We don't - you do. Just like it was with slides, you could send in something awful, and we'll look at it. We might make funny faces and wonder what you could have possibly been thinking, but we'll look at it. The ZAPP format works great in our system, and we encourage you to send those if you have them. Our system prefers "square" resolutions of at least 1024x1024, but if you want to send in photos you took on your cell phone, or drawings you did of your work in MS paint... we'll look at it. Briefly.
What about image manipulation?
There is only one solution here, director involvement. Before any jury I have a conversation with the jurors about how to look at the work, and look through the slides. If someone adds a gradient background they are not altering their work, if an artist were to change the glaze on a pot, it's cheating. You can't ask a juror to see through that. Again, though, this isn't that different than it is with slides. If I catch an artist misrepresenting their work, I will kick them out, plain and simple. This system actually makes it easier to do that, remember that I have a copy of their images a few keystrokes away at all times.
I already applied with slides, what now?
Nothing changes. The projectors still work, so we will still do a slide jury and you will still be notified by June 22nd. In the mean time, though you can still take advantage of the evangelist program and earn credit toward your booth fees by encouraging your friends to apply and try out the new digital jury system. Just be sure your name is on the line asking where they heard about our shows, and remember that we have closed the jewelry categories in order to honor our promise to reduce jewelry quantities in the shows.
I have another question.
I figured you might. Feel free to call and ask. 614.444.5767
Alright, I'm ready to try this thing.