Live Art Data
Live Art Data – New Strategies in Theatre Archiving: Scotland / Lower Saxony
The objective of the trilateral project »Live Art Data« is to establish a sustainable network between three institutions in Scotland and Lower Saxony: the University of Glasgow, University of Hildesheim, and the University of Applied Sciences Osnabrück. The underlying intention of the network is to discuss questions around the archiving of live performance,
including the specific British notion of ›Live Art‹.
An integral part of this endeavor is the exploration of cross-national and cross-institutional collaborations in Europe. ›Live Art Data‹, as we use the term, refers to digital and physical data produced by and during performative processes – either as an important component of aesthetic practice (e.g., the data of digital performances) or as paratexts (playbills, publicity photos, etc.). We combine historical, theoretical, and digital research into archival practices of storage, rubrication, and re-use of artistic data.
»Live Art Data« represents a comparative approach encompassing both historical and contemporary practices. We are interested in data produced in performance spaces and other cultural venues, in theatre pedagogical projects, by performing artists, and their audiences. From an interdisciplinary perspective, we tackle archival configurations and relations of performative data in teaching and information infrastructures today.
The focus is on four aspects: historiography, theory, digitalization, and the international dimension.
“As project owner of LIVE ART DATA – New Strategies in Theatre Archiving I hope to actively contribute to the transnational discourse on the complex field of work and research around the question of problems, chances and perspectives in terms of archiving live art.”
“The storability and archiving of ephemeral performances and other events of live art is a core problem of theater research and teaching. Against the background of radical change in the sphere of digital media, completely new potentials arise today – especially regarding methods of archiving performative processes and acts theatrical communication.”
– Professor Andreas Wolfsteiner
