Digital Representations of Performing Arts

AHDS Performing Arts & HATII, University of Glasgow

http://www.ahds.ac.uk/performingarts/http://www.hatii.arts.gla.ac.uk/

eScience Institutehttp://www.nesc.ac.uk/esi/

Overview and Objectives

• A theoretical framework for examining digital representations of performance

• Current state of digital representations for performance in the UK HE community.

• Understanding the challenges of representation

“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 representations, or evidence.

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

A framework for digital representations of performances

Performance as ‘text’

Subjectivity and agency

Performance as product of society

Pre-text

Process

Performance text

Post-text

Context

Examples of digital representations

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 resource provision in the UK

Performance as ‘text’

Subjectivity and agency

Performance as product of society

Pre-text

Process

Performance text

Post-text

Context

Some resources

Most resources

(see AHDS Performing Arts Scoping Study: http://www.ahds.ac.uk/performingarts/pubs/scoping-study-2006.pdf )

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.

Overview

As if it wasn’t complicated enough…

• http://slfront.blogspot.com/

Digitally representing you…