Documentation is an essential part of the artistic practice, be it in traditional or in novel formats.
As highlighted in the Prazzle Performance Art Guide, ‘documenting your performances is crucial because it not only preserves your work but also serves as an archive of your artistic journey’.[1]
Documentation of online participatory concerts can be greatly helpful for assessment and learning from the experience. It is seen that
Documentary evidence, whether it is in the form of written, audio, or visual data, can shed light on what people do, what they think, and how they present themselves and their experiences, beliefs, and feelings.[2]
There are situations when the project purposely asks for non-documentation (for example, when the ephemeral is the centre of the proposal). Even in those cases, if the ephemeral proposal applies to the concert in itself only, it can be useful to document certain aspects of the creative process and/or the afterthoughts.
In the area of online participatory projects, the documentation is sometimes a core part of the work itself. Sometimes, documentation is indeed inherent in the creative process.[3]
In online participatory concerts, we can usually organise at least three phases of documentation:
- Documentation of the process
- Documentation of the concert
- Documentation of the after-concert (feedback, reflective process, further impact)
The documentation of the process may involve archiving communication, which can be a helpful tool for reminders, for example. Also, in our experience, sometimes spontaneous comments would emerge in the emails and chats, which then became interesting material for reflection later on.
For the documentation of the process and of the after-concert actions, recordings of the workshops with participants can be valuable pieces of documentation. The documentation of workshops can involve video and/or audio recording, photographs, sketches, and written notes. Additionally, blog entries, questionnaires, and social media posts can be interesting tools to document the creative process, participants’ feedback, and impact of the project.
It is important, however, to ponder whether being documented can inhibit some participants, and prevent them from being spontaneous and engaging fully in the creative and/or reflective process.
Regarding documentation of the concert, often, the video of a pre-recorded concert can be the documentation itself. On the other hand, with live-streamed concerts, there is usually a choice of having the recording of the transmission as the documentation. Alternatively, some live-stream productions could have the possibility of keep the recordings of each source separately as the documentation of the concert (audio, individual cameras, etc).
Besides video and audio, programme notes are valuable pieces of documentation.
Additionally, it could also be relevant to keep photo documentation of the concert. An interesting idea could be to keep screenshots of the moment of the concert, documenting the interactions and emotions that may have emerged at that moment. For live-streamed concerts, the possibility of also having photo documentation of the event can be a helpful complement to the documentation of the project.
Especially when documenting through video, audio, and photographs where it is possible to recognise people, it is imperative to consider the ethics specifications of the project, which often require informed consent from participants, as well as visible notices to the in-situ audience.
Due to its academic research context, a Data Management Plan[4] was also required for the implementation of music as an invitation, which included strategies for documentation of the data generated by the project. Taking into consideration concerns about confidentiality, protection of participants’ privacy, as well as practices of Open Science, this plan included different ways of storage according to the different levels of sensitivity in the material. For example, data containing participants’ personal information had to be stored in a high security repository, while the performance videos that were intended to be watched by anyone could be stored in open access platforms.
[2] WILLIAMON, A., Ginsborg, J., Perkins, R., & Waddell, G. 2021. Performing music research: Methods in music education, psychology, and performance science. Oxford University Press. p. 109
[3] NELSON, R., & Nelson, R. 2022. Practice as research in the arts (and beyond) : principles, processes, contexts, achievements (Second edition.). Palgrave Macmillan. P. 82
[4]The Data Management Plan and other official documents of the music as an invitation project can be accessed on https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101066906
Case study 2: Hecate writes / rsvp: piano, toy piano, electronics, and actions
In order to protect the privacy of the teenage participants, most of the online workshops were not recorded. Indeed, they had given me informed consent through reading and signing the information sheet in advance of the workshops. However, I felt that it would be more sensitive not to record the meetings, also because they could have felt shy about been recorded. Only the workshop where there was a hands-on collective development of creative material was recorded in video and audio, since this was a crucial step which I would need to revisit for my research. At all times, I kept my habit of taking written notes, which is my personal tool for evaluation and reflective processes.
The material produced by the participants - creative texts, audio and video recordings - had a documentation nature in itself. However, unlike the previous phase of this project, I did not publish this documentation immediately, instead kept the files private. This is because this material was going to be part of a commissioned piece of music, therefore I felt that it would be appropriate to protect the originality of the work.
When it came to the concert, the recording of the livestream itself on YouTube was taken as the video documentation. Photo documentation was also arranged, as complementation to the documentation.
The online meeting for feedback, which took place the day after the concert, was recorded in video and audio, also I took my usual written notes. Additionally, the participants were invited to fill out an anonymous online feedback form if they wanted to, in their own time. Since some of them could not watch the concert at the moment of the livestream, the online form was a helpful strategy so that they could fill it out at any time after watching the recording.
I also maintained the dynamics of writing blog posts throughout the creative development, concert, and reflective process, as a strategy to document the insights, feelings, and learnings that were emerging during this phase of the project.
Since music as an invitation was developed in a research context, all this documentation has been crucial as evidence of outcomes, and for written publications which usually follow up artistic works in academic environments.
However, even in non-academic contexts, appropriate documentation is an important element of an artistic practice. The process of looking back at documentation can reveal insights about the work, which can be helpful in the development of new projects and support production stages such as funding applications and promotion.
Case study 1: music as an invitation (year 1: 2023-2024)
In this project, it was very helpful to keep a record of the communication with the participants, which happened via emails, WhatsApp texts, iMessage, and Instagram Direct Messages. Sometimes, these messages worked as reminders of dates and ideas, while at other times participants spontaneously share thoughts in those channels of communication which were helpful in the reflective process of the project.
The project also had a dedicated website,[4] which worked as a repository of the documentation throughout the creative, delivery, and reflective processes. I also wrote blog posts, which are part of the project’s website, to keep track of reflective notes and other elements in the development of the project.
With the consent from the participants, the online workshops were recorded in audio and video using the Zoom tool to record meetings. I also kept handwritten notes, which were practical for me to access specific topics later on, without the need to locate them inside the recordings.
The material produced by the participants during the creative process - short video and audio recordings - has a documentation nature in itself. I kept records of this material through publications on YouTube, which were then embedded on the project’s website, social media posts, as well as in physical and online storage devices.
Similarly, the online concert had a documentation nature in itself, since it was a compilation of the creative process. The online concert was published on YouTube, embedded on the project’s website, and extra copies have been saved in dedicated storage units.
I then kept screenshots of the live chat as documentation of the reactions during and right after the concert. The feedback meeting - which happened with the participants through Zoom right after the concert - was recorded in video and audio, and I took written notes as well.
Collaborative work also has the potential to create affective bond among the participants. Reflecting this interpersonal aspect of the project, the participants asked that we take a screenshot to document the faces of the group.
Although, when working with people, there are moments that inspire such warm gestures, one should make sure to respect and protect the privacy of individuals when recording faces: in the music as an invitation year 1, all the participants were adults, they themselves asked to be photographed, and extra care was taken not to expose them on social media - this photo was shared privately with the participants, and has been securely kept in password-protected storage units.
An additional piece of documentation was made from the anonymous online feedback form the participants could fill out in the days following the concert, if they wished to.
