Guillaume Boutard and François-Xavier Féron
Extending documentation and analysis frameworks for acousmatic music to performance/interpretation, from an information science point of view, will benefit the transmission and…
Abstract
Purpose
Extending documentation and analysis frameworks for acousmatic music to performance/interpretation, from an information science point of view, will benefit the transmission and preservation of a repertoire with an idiosyncratic relation to performance and technology. The purpose of this paper is to present the outcome of a qualitative research aiming at providing a conceptual model theorizing the intricate relationships between the multiple dimensions of acousmatic music interpretation.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodology relies on the grounded theory. A total of 12 Interviews were conducted over a period of three years in France, Québec and Belgium, grounded in theoretical sampling.
Findings
The analysis outcome describes eight dimensions in acousmatic performance, namely, musical, technical, anthropological, psychological, social, cultural, linguistic and ontological. Discourse profiles are provided in relation to each participant. Theory development led to the distinction between documentation of interpretation as an expertise and as a profession.
Research limitations/implications
Data collection is limited to French-speaking experts, for historical and methodological reasons.
Practical implications
The model stemming from the analysis provides a framework for documentation which will benefit practitioners and organizations dedicated to the dissemination of acousmatic music. The model also provides this community with a tool for characterizing expert discourses about acousmatic performance and identifying content areas to further investigate. From a research point of view, the theorization leads to the specification of new directions and the identification of relevant epistemological frameworks.
Originality/value
This research brings a new vision of acousmatic interpretation, extending the literature on this repertoire’s performance with a more holistic perspective.
Details
Keywords
The preservation and curation of music with real-time or live electronics is challenging. The goal is not to preserve a recording of the performance but to keep the work alive by…
Abstract
Purpose
The preservation and curation of music with real-time or live electronics is challenging. The goal is not to preserve a recording of the performance but to keep the work alive by providing the means to re-perform them. The purpose of this paper is to present the theoretical and practical outcomes of the documentation, dissemination and preservation of compositions with real-time electronics (DiP-CoRE) project.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodology combines methods stemming from work psychology and ergonomics with conceptual frameworks constructed according to grounded theory. Data were collected during a six months’ creative process. Subsequent interviews were conducted during confrontations with documents, including observational recordings, sketches and technical specifications.
Findings
This paper demonstrates the relevance of the proposed documentation methodology for the preservation of contemporary music with live electronics, focussing on the notion of intelligibility. It brings into light the multiple perspective of the documentation of the activity in a multi-agent creative process, which encompasses what was done but also what could have been done.
Research limitations/implications
The DiP-CoRE project bring to light connections between the notion of intelligibility, the thickness of the activity and boundary objects. The paper proposes further directions of research in order to embed the designed framework within digital repositories.
Practical implications
The documentation methodology, designed and tested in this paper, proposes a framework for practitioners, building on video-stimulated recall as well as documents produced during the creative process. This framework requires less expertise (but a more important technical setup) than a traditional interview-based documentation framework. It thus provides opportunities for various size organizations to build methodical documentation processes and to further build on distributed expertise with computer-supported collaborative work.
Originality/value
This paper proposes a new interdisciplinary documentation methodology relevant in the artistic domain, which brings together transmission with objects and by practice. It specifically defines the relation between this proposal and a high-level model for digital curation, namely, the mixed methods digital curation model. It further creates a link between documentation best practice and the ongoing research in the tracking of creative processes.
Details
Keywords
Guillaume Boutard and Catherine Guastavino
The purpose of this paper is to identify, operationalise, and test a knowledge management model in the context of electroacoustic and mixed music preservation. This…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify, operationalise, and test a knowledge management model in the context of electroacoustic and mixed music preservation. This operationalisation intends to provide an interdisciplinary framework for the specification of meaningful usability for idiosyncratic technological artefacts build up during the creative process of these works.
Design/methodology/approach
The design of the questionnaire was based on semi‐structured interviews with seven composers. The resulting questionnaire was used for an online survey targeting composers registered at electroacoustic and mixed music online associations. Data were collected from 33 composers.
Findings
This article demonstrates the relevance of Boisot's knowledge management model in order to categorize the knowledge involved during the creative process of electroacoustic and mixed music with spatialisation.
Research limitations/implications
In terms of Boisot's model operationalisation, the authors identified limitations with regards to composers' ability to discriminate between different levels of abstraction and diffusion. Since multiple agents, both human and non‐human, are involved in the creative process of electroacoustic and mixed music, further studies should address their interaction throughout the creative process.
Originality/value
Based on the findings of the survey, the authors propose the concept of significant knowledge as an extension of significant properties in order to provide a meaningful usability of digital objects. Since similar technologies are used in theatre, dance, and fine arts, the authors expect this research to benefit the artistic community at large in terms of preservation.