The Unanswered Question: A 20th Century Fine Arts Tournament

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Quinctilius Varus
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The Unanswered Question: A 20th Century Fine Arts Tournament

Post by Quinctilius Varus »

Hello! This is the announcement for The Unanswered Question, a tournament centering on fine arts in the year 1900 and beyond, aimed at being ready for side event weekend this summer. The writing team will be me (James E. Taylor High School), Max Shatan (Wesleyan University), Sameer Apte (Carnegie Mellon University), Wonyoung Jang, Halle Friedman (both of University of Chicago), and Evan Suttell (Michigan State University). The editor for auditory arts is John Lawrence, and the editor for visual arts is Jordan Brownstein. The tournament will be aimed at an open level, but answerlines will be kept accessible. There will be 8 packets and 24 tossups per packet, with each tossup capped at 8 lines in 10-point Times New Roman. The entry fee will be $10 per person. The current goal for the set is for it to be 100% complete by July 20, 2019.

The distribution is currently:

12 Visual Arts
4 Painting
2 Sculpture/3D Art
2.5 Film
1.5 Architecture
1 Photography
1 Other

12 Auditory Arts
4.5 Classical
2 Jazz
1 Opera
1 Dance/Ballet
1 Musical Theatre
1 Culturally Important “Popular” Music
1.5 Other

I will update this thread with more information in the future. Please message me or reply in this thread with any other questions you may have. Thank you!
Last edited by Quinctilius Varus on Fri May 31, 2019 4:35 pm, edited 2 times in total.
William Golden
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Re: The Unanswered Question: A 20th Century Fine Arts Tournament

Post by Aaron's Rod »

Looks like a great team of younger writers/players who are known for these subjects. 👀 Super hyped for this much 20th century music!
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Re: The Unanswered Question: A 20th Century Fine Arts Tournament

Post by UlyssesInvictus »

Super excited for this, and also to get destroyed by people who actually know things.
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Re: The Unanswered Question: A 20th Century Fine Arts Tournament

Post by Quinctilius Varus »

Pranav had to drop out of the set, so we are currently looking for a classical music writer. Please email me at williamgolden14 at gmail dot com by this Friday if you are interested in writing for The Unanswered Question. We are looking for people who do not have much experience writing at high levels, but are knowledgeable about music and willing to work to improve their questions. Inclusion of sample questions would be nice, but is not required.
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Re: The Unanswered Question: A 20th Century Fine Arts Tournament

Post by Smuttynose Island »

How is production coming along? Is this set still on pace to be ready for this summer?
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Re: The Unanswered Question: A 20th Century Fine Arts Tournament

Post by Quinctilius Varus »

I have added some updated information to the initial post.
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Re: The Unanswered Question: A 20th Century Fine Arts Tournament

Post by UlyssesInvictus »

Smuttynose Island wrote: Mon Apr 29, 2019 3:53 pm How is production coming along? Is this set still on pace to be ready for this summer?
Can the writers/editors provide any more details about the progress of this set?
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Re: The Unanswered Question: A 20th Century Fine Arts Tournament

Post by ThisIsMyUsername »

I'm not monitoring the Visual Arts, but the Auditory Arts is 1/3 done, and the writing pace has really picked up now that people are finishing (or have finished) their finals. The set will be done in time for Illinois Side Event Weekend on July 20th.
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Re: The Unanswered Question: A 20th Century Fine Arts Tournament

Post by UlyssesInvictus »

ThisIsMyUsername wrote: Mon Jun 10, 2019 9:01 pm I'm not monitoring the Visual Arts, but the Auditory Arts is 1/3 done, and the writing pace has really picked up now that people are finishing (or have finished) their finals. The set will be done in time for Illinois Side Event Weekend on July 20th.
Thanks! That's very reassuring.
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Re: The Unanswered Question: A 20th Century Fine Arts Tournament

Post by Simon de Montfort »

a tournament centering on fine arts in the year 1900 and beyond
Can you clarify this wording? The title classifies this as a 20th century fine arts tournament, but this statement indicates that works from the 21st century would be fair game.
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Re: The Unanswered Question: A 20th Century Fine Arts Tournament

Post by Quinctilius Varus »

Simon de Montfort wrote: Fri Jun 21, 2019 12:07 am
a tournament centering on fine arts in the year 1900 and beyond
Can you clarify this wording? The title classifies this as a 20th century fine arts tournament, but this statement indicates that works from the 21st century would be fair game.
The set will contain material from the 21st century in addition to the 20th. Apologies for not making that more clear.
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Re: The Unanswered Question: A 20th Century Fine Arts Tournament

Post by UlyssesInvictus »

Is there an email address I can contact for further questions about the set / eventually getting packets when they're ready? Feel free to PM me. (I'd much prefer email over forum communication.)
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Re: The Unanswered Question: A 20th Century Fine Arts Tournament

Post by Asterias Wrathbunny »

Can you provide a little more info on the criteria for "20th century fine arts"? For example, could a composer like Mahler be included in the set? If so, would the questions be based on clues from his work after 1900, or could they span his entire career?
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Re: The Unanswered Question: A 20th Century Fine Arts Tournament

Post by halle »

vcpavao wrote: Sun Jun 30, 2019 2:51 pm Can you provide a little more info on the criteria for "20th century fine arts"? For example, could a composer like Mahler be included in the set? If so, would the questions be based on clues from his work after 1900, or could they span his entire career?
Artists with careers spanning the late 19th through early/mid 20th centuries will appear in the set. These tossups will generally focus on work from 1900 on, but there could be some clues drawn from earlier works. Generally speaking, all answerlines will be artists, movements, works, common linked elements, etc. that fall under the 20th and 21st centuries, but if a useful clue for that answer happens to involve something pre-20th century, it might well appear in the tossup.

As far as reaching out with more questions about the set, William Golden will be the go-to person for such communications. I am also available to answer questions if necessary.
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Re: The Unanswered Question: A 20th Century Fine Arts Tournament

Post by halle »

Quinctilius Varus wrote: Thu Feb 14, 2019 1:57 am
12 Auditory Arts
4.5 Classical
2 Jazz
1 Opera
1 Dance/Ballet
1 Musical Theatre
1 Culturally Important “Popular” Music
1.5 Other
The announcement post has been updated to reflect the finalized Auditory distribution. The set is on track to be finished by this weekend, and we're looking forward to seeing it get played!
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Re: The Unanswered Question: A 20th Century Fine Arts Tournament

Post by gimmedatguudsuccrose »

This tournament is fantastic, and everyone who has a passing interest in music or images (or enjoys seeing things or listening to things) should play this! Although the tournament is quite challenging (in my opinion, the visual arts was a solid notch harder than Jordaens), it still did a great job of asking about underrepresented art in quizbowl in novel and exciting ways that were also fairly accessible. Also, in my opinion, there hasn't been any tournament that's come close to the inventiveness and difficulty UAQ displayed in the auditory arts ever - if you like classical music, PLAY THIS SET!
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Re: The Unanswered Question: A 20th Century Fine Arts Tournament

Post by Cheynem »

I really enjoyed this tournament even though I do not follow much modern art. The film and musical theater were very well done and reasonably well balanced.
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Re: The Unanswered Question: A 20th Century Fine Arts Tournament

Post by Auks Ran Ova »

This tournament was a ton of fun! I definitely recommend it.
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Re: The Unanswered Question: A 20th Century Fine Arts Tournament

Post by Quinctilius Varus »

A discussion group has been set up for those that have played the set. Thank you for the kind words Kai, Mike, and Rob!
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Re: The Unanswered Question: A 20th Century Fine Arts Tournament

Post by UlyssesInvictus »

This was a really fun set. I think something like, 6 out of the 8 games my team played were decided by a single question, which is IMO a pretty good measure of a well-written, competitive set. The painting and conceptual art was especially fun to play, so props to whoever wrote a lot of that.
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Re: The Unanswered Question: A 20th Century Fine Arts Tournament

Post by Valefor »

This was one of the most enjoyable, most interesting arts-focused sets I've ever played. Congratulations to the authors for producing some seriously quality material. :)
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Re: The Unanswered Question: A 20th Century Fine Arts Tournament

Post by The Story of a Head That Fell Off »

This was an extremely fun set, thanks for writing!
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