Analysis of an Audiovisual Resource - Audiovisual Archives - page 14

Generally, these modifications result in a repositioning of the original textual
object within the intertextual field peculiar to the “ textscape ”) of a given social
actor. Thus, they may relate to the organization, the textual structure of the original
textual object such as, e.g. its syntagmatic and linear organization. They may also
relate to the meta-textual relations between the original textual object and the
perspective , the point of view about that source text expressed either by its
author or by a third party in the form of comments, evaluations, comparisons,
(re)-interpretations and (re)-classifications or, indeed, in the form of advice and
(usage) guides. More specifically they may relate to a (re)-definition of the
hypertextual relations that the source textual object maintains with other objects
forming part of the textscape of a social actor in the form of citations, references,
“links”, etc. They may also relate to the paratext of the source textual object: more
specifically they may relate to the textual object's “signaletic identity” - its peritext ,
to use Genette's term [GEN 87] - which may be modified, for instance, with new
titles, new prologs or epilogs. Finally, they may relate to the source text's epitextual
“impact” on its textual environment in the form, e.g. of targeted distribution (here,
we are thinking of the new social networking media, of buzz and other opportunities
to circulate and make a textual object known).
In any case, for all these activities of appropriation, and thus of modification of
the organization of the textual object and its position within an intertextual field,
indexation, in a manner of speaking, constitutes the material part of the task : on one
occasion, it will manifest itself in the form of free production of keywords; on
another, in the form of production of explanatory texts; on a different occasion, in
the form of adding links, pointing to other online resources; on yet a another
occasion it may entail visual or acoustic annotation of the text, and so on.
Thus, while we recognize the existence of an “orthodox” practice of indexation,
we consider it here, in the broadest sense of the term, as the material part of the task
of transforming a textual object into a resource , a bona fide asset for a group of
users.
1.6.Somereflectionsonthesubjectofthetheoreticalreferenceframework
In our approach, the definition and elaboration of models of description for
audiovisual corpora reflect the semiotic theory of the ( audiovisual - see [STO 03])
text* . The main semiotic and cognitive facets of the audiovisual text (or, simply , of
the text) which we are more particularly interested in here can be illustrated in an
intuitive and simple manner with the following seven typical questions:
1 In a corpus/collection of audiovisual texts, which text* , or indeed which
specific segment* - (part) of the text - arouses particular interest and attention (for
the analyst or for a given audience)?