On Fri 20th October 2006 Daisy Abbott visited Claire Hudson and Guy Baxter at the Theatre Museum premises in Blythe House, London.

Daisy distributed several copies of the AHDS Performing Arts Scoping Study and was given a tour of the (temporary) premises and vast collections. Holdings include videos of performances, theatre objects (e.g. costumes), contextual materials (e.g. playbills, reviews, and prints), and bibliographic information. More details of the Theatre Museum's collections can be viewed at PeoplePlay (http://www.theatremuseum.org.uk).

The current fate of the Theatre Museum was discussed and the priority for productions of digital objects from portions of the collection as well as an electronic catalogue of holdings. Guy Baxter elaborated on the National Performance Data Project feasibility study being currently undertaken by the Theatre Information Group (which will soon present information through its own website). This document is centred around the collaborative development of a meaningful, extensible, and appropriate way to describe performance events using XML.

Taking a performance studies perspective, this interdisciplinary conference approaches documentation and archival work as situated processes. It aims to reflect upon the production and reception of knowledge - how objects and events are identified as relevant to the historical record, and how documents and the archives that house them are implicated in diverse modes of social and cultural memory.

Guest practitioners come from the performing arts and academic communities and the keynote speaker is Alan Read, Professor of Theatre at King's College, University of London. The conference format mixes panel presentations and discussion with more interactive practice-based research training workshops. These workshops pose questions such as how the visual in all its forms can be collected, stored, accessed and understood over time and address the issues raised by the ephemerality of performance.