AHDS Performing Arts Case Studies illustrate how projects have dealt with particular digitisation issues.

This page brings together performing arts case studies. They are taken primarily from projects and organisations concerned with digital records and their preservation and long-term access.

The main sources used are explained below.

We would like to continue adding to this list so if you have created a case study in the performing arts or know of one that we should link to or add here, please contact Sarah Jones at s.jones AT hatii.arts.gla.ac.uk.

The InterPARES projects have investigated digital preservation, with a specific focus on maintaining the authenticity and reliability of the records. InterPARES2 focused on records produced in complex digital environments and created a number of performing arts case studies.

The Erpanet set out to make viable and visible information, best practice and skills development in the are of digital preservation of cultural heritage and scientific objects. The project team produced a number of case studies, of which two are related to the performing arts.

The AHDS aids the discovery, creation and preservation of digital resources in the arts and humanities. It has written several case studies that pick up on common user enquiries and explain the issues projects have faced, to help other scholars best design and conduct their research.

URL: http://www.interpares.org/ip2/ip2_case_studies.cfm?study=1

Background: This case study focuses on the work of Arbo Cyber, Théâtre, a company whose artistic output involves performing arts, visual arts and media arts. Arbo has created over 20 performances, numerous laboratories and school workshops between 1985 and 2001. In an effort to preserve their work, members of Arbo are now seeking to digitise their artistic works.

Case study focus: Taken from InterPARES 2, this case study considers the issues surrounding digitisation of performance documentation and the creation of new artistic works in electronic environments.

Tags/themes: digitisation; theatre; media art; preservation

URL: http://www.interpares.org/ip2/ip2_case_studies.cfm?study=2

Background: This case study examines the documentation of the performance art of Stelarc, an Australian Performance Artist who combines robotics and technology with the human form. His art is exhibited or performed in diverse environments including galleries, aerial suspensions and the Internet.

Case study focus: Taken from InterPARES 2, this case study considers where record creation begins and ends with Stelarc's art, since the primary record exists in his own body as much as it does in the computing systems and/or electronic networks through which he performs, and questions how the fragility of these environments affects the reliability and authenticity of the records.

Tags/themes: performance; robotics; documentation; authenticity

URL: http://www.interpares.org/ip2/ip2_case_studies.cfm?study=12

Background: Obsessed Again is a work for bassoon and interactive electronics written in 1992 by Canadian composer, Keith Hamel. The work was designed to use commercial hardware and software but the required equipment is quickly becoming obsolete. This case study looks into ways to resolve these difficulties since the commissioner of the work has expressed a wish to reconstitute it.

Case study focus: Taken from InterPARES 2, this case study aims to identify both digital and non-digital documents associated with the work, articulate the requirements for musical authenticity based upon the documents, build a performable, authentic realization of the work, and develop a method for the future storage, retrieval, migration and access of the work.

Tags/themes: music; preservation; re-perform; authenticity; obsolescence

URL: http://www.interpares.org/ip2/ip2_case_studies.cfm?study=14

Background: Waking Dream is a performance piece for two people using multiple theatrical elements. The performance uses infrared light, remote controlled equipment, wireless and wired video, head mounted display, soundtrack and four distinct performance areas.

Case study focus: Taken from InterPARES 2, this case study aims to identify a method of archiving performance. It questions how the elements of live theatre can be recorded, especially when it involves multimedia and interactive involvement of performers: how for example can you record infrared elements where the audience is in darkness?

Tags/themes: performance; documentation; interactive

URL: http://www.interpares.org/ip2/ip2_case_studies.cfm?study=21

Background: The Electronic Cafe Intentional (ECI) is a multimedia international network for showcasing creative, multi-cultural, multi-disciplinary, collaborative telecommunications. ECI's activities took place from the mid-1970s to the present, and incorporated experiences that were dynamic and interactive.

Case study focus: Taken from InterPARES 2, this case study deals with a wide variety of media types in aging and obsolescent formats, highlighting the problems posed by interactive, experiential, and dynamic records many years after they were initially created.

Tags/themes: multimedia; telecommunications; interactive; obsolescence

URL: http://www.interpares.org/ip2/ip2_case_studies.cfm?study=8

Background: This case study records the multimedia virtual reconstruction of an archaeological site at Pompeii, namely the House of Polybius, destroyed in 79 AD by eruption of the Vesuvius. It follows this single production, created by the private company Altair4, through the stages of pre-production, production and post-production.

Case study focus: Taken from InterPARES 2, this case study seeks to build a model describing and explaining the processes involved in creating digital moving image products and the by-products resulting from the activities. The team seeks to identify the digital entities created at each stage of the process, model the structure of each digital entity and show the relationships between the digital entities and their relationships to the overall production.

Tags/themes: multimedia; record creation; moving images; archaeology; process

URL: http://www.erpanet.org/studies/docs/erpaStudy_ORF.pdf

Background: The Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF, Österreichischer Rundfunk) provides national television and radio programmes as well as nine provincial radio channels. The ORF maintains more than 120 separate archival structures, from the card index box to audiovisual archives. All over the ORF existing archives are being digitised and better integrated into the active workflow.

Case study focus: Completed by Erpanet, this case study considers how ORF are tackling digital preservation. It looks into the digitisation programmes and the 'KoKo' system run by radio station Oe1 that embraces the whole workflow at ORF radio stations, including the planning of programmes, coordination, broadcasting, as well as archiving. The KoKo system is set to be rolled out across ORF.

Tags/themes: tv; radio; digitisation; preservation; audiovisual

URL: http://www.erpanet.org/studies/docs/erpastudy_TIN.pdf

Background: Theater Instituut Nederland (TIN) is a complex and nationally unique organisation with a broad range of facilities, resources and capacities. It provides services for both performers and the general public, and has a growing collection of theatrical artefacts with trilateral functions of a museum, archive and library. In recent years, it has embarked on several digitisation projects for paper-based and audiovisual materials and has developed a database of Dutch theatre productions and address information from the 20th century to the present day.

Case study focus: Completed by erpanet this case study investigates the digitisation work done by TIN to aid preservation and access. Consideration is made of the challenges faced, for example creating digital surrogates of physical artefacts such as costumes, and the preservation strategies TIN has in place for the future.

Tags/themes: digitisation; preservation; theatre; access; audiovisual

URL: http://www.ahds.ac.uk/creating/case-studies/diamm/index.htm

Background: The purpose of the Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music (DIAMM) was to obtain, archive and, where necessary, enhance digital images of European sources of medieval polyphonic music. These include a relatively small number of complete manuscripts and the much more numerous manuscript fragments. These fragments, which are often barely legible and hard to place and interpret, amount to a rich but widely scattered resource that has been relatively neglected because of the difficulty of access, legibility and comparison of widely scattered materials. The project has created a new permanent electronic archive of these images, both to facilitate detailed study of this music and its sources, and to assure their permanent preservation.

Case study focus: Undertaken by AHDS, this case study details the complete management process of a digitisation project. It places particular focus on capture techniques and best practice in record creation as well as methods of delivery to ensure the resources are easily accessible and provide the functionality required for in depth research without contravening copyright legislation.

Tags/themes: digitisation; music; access; preservation; record creation; copyright

URL: http://www.ahds.ac.uk/creating/case-studies/shakespeare/index.htm

Background: Designing Shakespeare is an audiovisual archive documenting all Shakespearean performance at the principal theatres in London and Stratford from 1960 to 2000. The collection covers 1116 productions and includes 3837 images, 7 audio interviews, 6 video interviews and 10 Theatre Virtual Reality Models. The resource illustrates the vast range of possible interpretations of Shakespeare's work and provides students and scholars with a better understanding of theatre design in Britain.

Case study focus: Undertaken by AHDS, this case study investigates the benefits of a remote entry ingest system, especially for research projects such as Designing Shakespeare where contributors are geographically disparate. Best practice in creation and metadata requirements are also considered.

Tags/themes: Shakespeare; multimedia; metadata; ingest; record creation

We would like to continue adding to this list so if you have created a case study in the performing arts or know of one that we should link to or add here, please contact Sarah Jones at s.jones AT hatii.arts.gla.ac.uk.