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The Creation and Use of Digital Collections for Performing Arts
Daisy Abbott and Professor Seamus Ross, AHDS Performing Arts & HATII, University of
Glasgow
http://www.ahds.ac.uk/performingarts/http://www.hatii.arts.gla.ac.uk/
What is the Arts and Humanities Data Service?
A UK national service aiding the discovery, creation and preservation of digital resources in and for research, teaching and learning in the arts and humanities.
To support teaching and research, our activities include:
• Long term data preservation• Advice on the creation, discovery and use of digital resources• Research into the uses of digital data and its benefits to HE• Research into and support of innovative digital technologies, standards, and infrastructures • Promotion of best practice in these areas
Subject Centres
AHDS Performing Arts is one of five subject centres which,
together with the Executive, form the AHDS.
Purpose of the scoping study was to understand:
• The nature of ‘digital resources’ created and used in the Performing Arts
• How their creation and use is integrated into the research, teaching and learning process
• What methods scholars are using
• The needs of the research and teaching community in terms of advice, technology, and discovering Performing Arts resources
• And the relationship between AHDS Performing Arts and the communities of users and content creators we serve.
Getting to Know Our Audience:
AHDS Performing Arts Scoping Study
The report’s key findings can be categorised into four areas:
1. The current state of play in Performing Arts research, teaching, and learning.
2. The creation and use of digital resources for Performing Arts.
3. The requirements of the Performing Arts community.
4. Wider issues regarding the digital representation of Performing Arts and their documentation and preservation.
The Scoping Study was sent out to every university library and Performing Arts department in the UK. It is freely available online at http://www.ahds.ac.uk/performingarts/pubs/scoping-study-2006.pdf
How can the study of performance and performance theory be aided by digital
resources?
“A work of art born on the stage lives only for a moment, and no matter how beautiful it may be it cannot be commanded to stay with us.”
(Stanislavski, My Life in Art, 1948)
Performance is ephemeral.
It is studied through evidence.
Performance as a live event, or ‘text’
• Deliberate construction of meaning through ‘signs’
• Meaning is created by every element present, deliberate or accidental
• Individual ‘readings’ of each performance text
• Readings provide feedback into the text itself.
• All of these elements form a total performative experience
• This overall approach is related to the semiotic and phenomenological theoretical approaches.
Performance as created and received by people; subjectivity and agency
• Many theoretical approaches cover the agency and subjectivity of both the ‘authors’ of a work and its ‘receivers’ or audience.
• Deliberately and self-consciously subjective
• Related to psychoanalytic theory, feminist and gender theories, and reader-response and reception theory
Performance as a product of society
• Rich relationship with societal context
• Related to post-modern and materialist theoretical perspectives
• Technological opportunities can lead to Performing Arts becoming self-reflexive and the lines between different media are blurred
Stages of performance
• Pre-text ( subtext)
• Process
• Performance Text
• Post-text
• Context ( subtext)
From:
Five Centuries of Scottish Music
(http://www.ahds.ac.uk/performingarts/collections/five-centuries.htm)
From: Stagework (http://www.stagework.org)
From: Designing Shakespeare (http://www.ahds.ac.uk/performingarts/collections/designing-shakespeare.htm)
Two reviews from the Times Digital Archive (accessed through http://infotrac.galegroup.com) and Financial Times http://www.ft.com
Examples of digital evidence
Performance as ‘text’
Subjectivity and agency
Performance as product of society
Pre-text PDF of musical score
Miller’s preface to The Crucible
Comparison of dance notations across time/cultures
Process 3D models showing ideas for set designs
Scanned image of a director’s notes on the script
Scanned newspaper clippings which led to a devised work
Performance text
Digital video of a performance
Interviews with audience members
Motion capture data which was used to transmit a dancer’s movements over a network
Post-text Scholarly analysis of the mise-en-scène of a play
‘Word of mouth’ publicity
Newspaper review of a concert
Context PDF of a glossy programme from a West End musical
Statistics on whether ‘A-list’ stars increase box-office take
Text detailing the compulsory dress code for orchestra musicians
Existing digital resources
Performance as ‘text’
Subjectivity and agency
Performance as product of society
Pre-text
Process
Performance text
Post-text
Context
Some resources
Most resources
Desired digital resources
Performance as ‘text’
Subjectivity and agency
Performance as product of society
Pre-text
Process
Performance text
Post-text
Context
Most sought-after types of digital resource
The characteristics of digital collections affect the methodology of study of those collections.
Many existing digital resources provide contextual evidence and are suitable only for a material or historical theoretical model of study.
Digital resources for which there is a particularly high demand:
• Evidence of the performance text
• Materials documenting the creative process
• Resources which encourage a semiotic/textual or subjective analysis of the evidence.
Future directions for digital resources?
Daisy Abbott [email protected]
AHDS Performing Arts collections: http://www.ahds.ac.uk/performingarts/collections/
AHDS Performing Arts Scoping Study (PDF, 1.7Mb)http://www.ahds.ac.uk/performingarts/pubs/scoping-study-2006.pdf
