Information Technology Reference
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or the techniques for the sake of a new performance, assuming a certain degree of
authenticity
...
But for digital music, things are not so well organized. The dependency on indus-
try is very high, knowledge is not maintained, obsolescence of systems and software
is very rapid, thereby increasing the risk.
Consider for example Emmanuel Nunes'
Lichtung II.
This work was first cre-
ated in 1996 in Paris, using a NeXT workstation extended with a hardware DSP
platform developed by IRCAM. The work was then recreated in 2000, using then
a Silicon Graphics workstation with a specific piece of software (jMax). The work
was recreated again in Lisbon in 2008, using a Macintosh with the Max/MSP soft-
ware. For each of the subsequent re-performances, a porting of the original process
was needed, and was implemented by the original engineer who had developed the
first version.
This is only one example, but the amount of works that were originally created for
the NeXT/ISPW workstation is huge, and for all of them, the cycle of obsolescence
is similar.
The risk is then to completely lose some works: for lost compositions from the
past, the musical score is sufficient for any new performance. For the digital part,
the score does not give any information.
22.3 Challenges of Preservation
The most important challenge for preservation in performing arts is to be able to
re-perform the works. It is not sufficient to preserve the recordings (audio or video),
but to preserve all the objects that allow for a new live performance of the work.
This implies not only the preservation of all objects that are part of a work, but also
preservation of the whole set of logical relationship between these elements.
Objects that have to be preserved are:
•
data objects (“midi” files, audio files)
•
processes (real-time processes)
•
documentation (images, text)
•
recordings (audio, video)
Data objects and processes are used during the live performance, while documen-
tation and recordings are used when preparing a new live performance. Recordings
can be considered to be a specific kind of documentation which aims at providing
a descriptive documentation of the work (how it sounds like
), while documen-
tation as images and text aim to provide a prescriptive documentation on the work
(what has to be done). As explained above, recordings are part of the objects to be
preserved, but are not sufficient to preserve the ability to re-perform the work.
There can be several objects that are used inside a work. For example, there
can be several hundreds of different data objects (audio files, midi files
...
), several
real-time processes (for instance, more than 50 in
En Echo
by Philippe Manoury),
...
