Designing Shakespeare
The Designing Shakespeare Collection can be accessed via AHDS Performing Arts
The Designing Shakespeare Collection can be accessed via AHDS Performing Arts
Introduction
The capabilities of the Internet are often trumpeted, but it can sometimes be the case that trying to fulfil these capabilities can be so time-consuming as to offset the advantages the new technology is supposed to provide. Publishing on the web may attract wider audiences, for example, but preparing for the web may mean these audiences have to wait longer. Various solutions are continually being proffered to combat this type of difficulty, and for one problem in particular, an excellent solution has been developed by the Performing Arts Data Service (PADS).
It is the custom for resource creators to design, create and complete their resource and then physically deliver it (via CD-ROM or zip disc, for example) to the technical staff that will place the material on the Internet. The PADS' remote-entry system alters this formula by allowing resource creators to insert their electronic data directly on to the PADS servers at the University of Glasgow where it is immediately visible from the PADS website. This has two distinct advantages. Firstly, it removes the reliance of resource-creators on technical staff to deposit the resource on the web. Secondly, it allows resource-creators to devise a much more flexible product. A resource on CD-ROM is a finite, static resource, whereas the PADS remote-entry system permits an organic resource, which resource-creators can easily re-order and update according to need. Using the example of one specific resource being installed on the PADS server, this case study examines in closer detail how the system works, paying attention not only to the remote-entry system, but the process of metadata creation that accompanies it.
Background
Born from previous research, Dr Christie Carson's Designing Shakespeare: an Audio-Visual Archive 1960-2000 has an ambitious goal. Assisted by her colleagues from the Department of Drama at Royal Holloway College and various other experts in the field, Dr Carson is creating an electronic archive of all Shakespearean performance at the principal theatres in London and Stratford from 1960 to 2000. Revolutionary productions of Othello, critically-acclaimed performances of Macbeth, and little-known versions of Cymbeline are all being added to the archive, thus creating a huge performing arts resource, available to anyone interested in performance history. Information on the plays (dates, locations, cast lists, designers etc.) will be recorded and occasionally additional textual material (reviews of the plays, excerpts taken from the programmes) will also be incorporated. The project, which has just begun, will be publicly available as a work in progress from the PADS in April 2001 and the complete archive will be completed in July 2002.
Figure 1 - Michael Gambon performing in a 1983 version of King Lear.
Photograph copyright Donald Cooper / Photostage
Dr Carson's interest, however, is more than creating a catalogue of plays. Attempting to address an imbalance in current Shakespearean scholarship, which tends to focus on the text of Shakespeare's plays rather than their theatrical execution, the Designing Shakespeare resource will concentrate on the plays in this 1960 to 2000 period that were noted for their innovation in design, in, for example, sets or costume. The information relating to these plays will include photographic images, audio recordings of interviews with relevant performers and designers, and graphical reconstructions of the set designs. When combined, this data will provide a comprehensive archive of the most note-worthy Shakespearean performances in contemporary Britain.
The PADS Remote Entry System
The PADS' remote entry system fundamentally changes the method of resource creation, by allowing resource creators to place their material online directly, without having to rely on others' technical expertise. This is the route taken by Dr Carson's project. The data objects that constitute Designing Shakespeare (the audio streams, the photographs, the stage designs etc.) are uploaded via modem from the creator's own computer to the PADS' servers at the University of Glasgow. The PADS' Hyperwave data management system incorporates a flexible, web-based data entry interface which facilitates the remote creation of digital archives, allowing researchers to insert discrete objects in a wide variety of MIME-Types and their related metadata using one simple form. Relationships and hierarchies are simple to define, allowing the creation of sophisticated on-line collections with little or no input from the PADS staff in Glasgow. Security is ensured via a password system, meaning that only those connected to the resource team can access the relevant pages and edit and insert data.
The Designing Shakespeare resource is organised into a pre-determined hierarchy, consisting of three levels (similar to that of other collections on the PADS website). At the top level, metadata relating to individual plays (including title, date of first performance etc) defines the area of interest. Then, a level downwards, the separate performances of the play are entered, for example, a 1982 performance at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford. Finally, the team inserts various digital objects related to that production, which, for the 1982 Stratford performance, includes the above photograph of Michael Gambon performing the role of Lear. This hierarchy is reproduced when users browse through the resource - once a play is selected, a variety of productions can be browsed and then mined for images of the stage sets, contemporary reviews or oral histories of the production designs.
Cataloguing the Resource - Metadata
Figure 2 shows the top half of a sample entry form from the PADS database. It is for a production of King Lear, performed by the touring Tokyo Globe Theatre Company, held in London during 1991. Once the form is completed, the resource creator presses the 'submit' button and the data is integrated into the collection. The fields that are filled in this form, commonly known as metadata, determine the information that will be presented to the user, provide the keywords for any index searching done over the collection, and give various strands of documentation, relating to both the subject matter and related technical details.
Figure 2 - Inserting metadata for a 1991 performance of King Lear by the Tokyo Globe Theatre Company
It is crucial, when several researchers at different sites are entering records, that consistent practices in both data entry and selection of information are followed. Standards for the depiction of dates and personal names must be agreed before data entry commences and decisions must be made about the standardisation of theatre terminology and the roles of cast members and of theatre names, particularly as the information sources for performance data vary widely - being culled from playbills, contemporary reviews and journals.
The scholarly motivation for Designing Shakespeare is the need to create an archive relating not to Shakespeare's texts but rather one related to Shakespearean performance, and more specifically the way the plays have been staged and contextualised on the contemporary stage. Dr Carson's scholarly interest is the work of directors, set designers and costumiers who devise the theatrical environment that the actors perform in. Therefore Dr Carson and her team members must record the information most relevant to this purpose. In extracting this information and inserting it as the resource's metadata, the team must stick to an established method of selection and insertion.
Cataloguing the Resource - Metadata (continued)
The AHDS is committed to the promotion of internationally agreed standards in the creation and documentation of digital data resources. The metadata attached to each digital object in the Designing Shakespeare collection, and to each production and play, is structured using the Dublin Core Metadata Set. This set of 15 elements provides a standardised structure for describing digital objects and concepts attached to those objects. For example, the person responsible for the creation of the object is designated in the field dc_creator.
The Dublin Core was devised as a non-subject specific set of descriptors, in order to facilitate interoperability between different types of resources in different subject areas. However, resources in the Performing Arts tend to demonstrate particular complexities, which necessitate a flexible approach to the creation of metadata records. Of particular concern is the proliferation of 'creators' - theatrical performances may involve the creative input of hundreds of contributors, including not just the cast but costume designers, make-up artists and hair stylists. Not only must these creators be recorded separately, but their distinct roles must also be defined.
Resource builders are able to introduce qualified Dublin Core elements to accommodate this complexity and the PADS has devised a number of additional fields or qualifiers aimed at the creation of meaningful Performing Arts documentation. Where elements are repeated (in the case of multiple creators, for example) the creator element is assigned numerically and supplemented with the qualifier role:
dc_creator_1: Trevor Nunn
dc_creator_role_1: director
dc__date_1: 1998
dc_date_role_1: first performance, The Other Place, Stratford, UK
Figure 3 - A browseable list of King Lear performances
Figure 3 is a screenshot of the browseable user interface devised to facilitate simple and user-friendly access to the performance materials. Although the full data records are structured using the Dublin Core, at this level users are presented with a shorter, subject-oriented list of fields, which are dynamically created and mapped to user-friendly terminology such as 'cast' or 'credits'. Where a description of the design of the production is available in the source material, this appears in the browseable data to aid an informed choice. At this stage users are able either to 'mine-down' to the full metadata record by clicking on the red information symbol to the left of the selection, or may follow the hyperlinked title to a list of digitised images, sound files, moving images or VRML (Virtual Reality Markup Language) reconstructions of the production as staged.
Figure 4 - The full metadata for the 1991 Tokyo Globe Theatre performance of King Lear
Figure 4 is a screenshot of the full metadata record for a King Lear performance by the Tokyo Globe Theatre Company. As well as information about the cast, location and date of the production, the record includes (where available) descriptions of the stage set, costumes and other design features and highlights the creative and technical staff responsible. Records will also include dynamic links to other resources in the collection that are related to the selected production and may ultimately include links to other, remote resources and bibliographic and research materials as the resource matures.
Advantages and Conclusion
There are clear advantages in inserting data using the remote-access method. Resource-creators no longer have to physically deliver data on discs or CD-ROMs that are susceptible to damage while in transit. Nor do resource-creators have to be located at a particular location to insert the data. The Designing Shakespeare team is based variously in Sussex, Surrey, Glasgow and in Canada, yet each member of the team is able to insert and edit data and track the collection's progress. The resource can be updated from any terminal with Internet access, and any number of the team can do this simultaneously. And while resource-creators no longer have to rely repeatedly on the expertise of technical staff, PADS staff are available to help should any problems arise during the remote insertion of the data. All of this hastens the time needed for data entry, and facilitates the process of resource creation.
Remote-entry also allows a much greater freedom in determining when the product is finished. While the entire contents of a CD-ROM must be completed before it can be published, the Designing Shakespeare team can allow the public access to their resource whenever they feel there is a suitable amount of data present on the web. After this, the team can continue to add to the database, which is open-ended. Equally any typographical or other mistakes are corrected with the minimum of fuss. It is also possible to respond positively to users' feedback. Should any user feel that certain plays have been omitted from the archive, or feels that other fields need be included, the structure can be re-arranged to permit this. Designing Shakespeare is not trapped within rigid boundaries, but can develop as its creators see fit.
The PADS have designed their system architecture with projects like Designing Shakespeare in mind. It can cope with a wide variety of formats, and so allows audio, textual and graphical files to be stored and retrieved side-by-side. This is particularly useful for the varied needs of practitioners and academics in performing arts disciplines. Dance, theatre, music, film and television all make use of data, which when digitised, is created in differing formats. Being able to integrate this variety with a remote-entry system, such as provided by PADS, now means that resource creators now have a fair greater freedom in designing and maintaining their digitised production.
The Designing Shakespeare Collection can be accessed via AHDS Performing Arts
Many thanks to Catherine Owen and Christie Carson
for their help in producing this case study.
