Into the FuturePUTTINGTHE NATIONAL REVIEW OF LIVE ART

(1986-2010) VIDEO ARCHIVEONLINE

SIMON JONESPROFESSOR OF PERFORMANCE

UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL

Practice-as-Research:

Bodies in Flight

Documentation of performance:Catalogues; CDs; DVDs

CD-ROM Archival project:Flesh & Text (2001,AHRB & Arts Council funded,CI Sara Giddens NTU)

LAA research context @ Bristol2005-06: transfer of archives from Nottingham Trent

University, refurbishment of archive-store & research space, transfer of staff: Prof Barry Smith & Bex Carrington Keeper of LAA.

2006-09: Capturing the Past, preserving the Future: Digitizing the National Review of Live Art Video Archive: PI for final year; original PI Prof Barry Smith (AHRC-funded Resource Enhancement: £297k).

2006-09: GWR Fellowship in the Creative Arts: Performing the Archive: PI, 3-year project with Arnolfini and Exeter University Department of Drama (Great Western Research funded: £105k).

2010-12: Into the Future: PI, 1-year project with Theatre Collection to complete and enhance access to Live Art Archives (CIs Drs Paul Clarke & Angela Piccini) (AHRC-funded digital equipment and database scheme: £115k).

2011-14: Performing Documents: PI, 3-year project with Arnolfini, Inbetween Time Productions and the Theatre Collection to model creative engagements with performance archives (CIs Dr Paul Clarke & Prof Nick Kaye [Exeter]) (AHRC-funded: £453k).

INTO THE FUTURE’S AIMS:

1. To make the complete and definitive archive of the National Review of Live Art (NRLA) available in an online version, providing a virtual research environment of direct use to academics, professional practitioners, artists and curators, students and the public.

2. To maximise the sustainability, usability, interoperability and stability of the data created from the AHRC funded project - Capturing the Past, Preserving the Future: Digitisation of the NRLA Video Archive.

3. To explore issues of accessibility and usability in terms of providing breath and/or depth of digitised (predominately moving image) data, metadata and also enhanced metadata delivered through the Performing Arts Documentation System (PADS).

4. To develop and enhance user-friendly "visual" ways of disseminating and exploring data through developing the JISC-funded Semantic Tool for Arts Research (STARS) project, which arose out of the AHRC-funded Practice As Research In Performance (PARIP) project.

5. To develop a sustainable, user-friendly, web-based system for delivering digitised content and metadata, in partnership with the Institute of Learning and Research Technologies, Advanced Computing Research Centre and High Performance Computing (ILRT, ACRC, HPC), which can then be used as a model for other projects.

6. To provide the widest possible dissemination to a range of audiences and users through the online platform, and so extend the impact of the NRLA digital archive, which is currently only accessible to Theatre Collection visitors in person.

NRLA FESTIVALS ONLINE

ARCHIVE / PROJECT STATISTICS

584 artists or groups over 30 years of the festival running

1811 video filesexisting in four formats, ranging from U-

Matic to Mini DV tapethe raw dataset on HPC: 43.5TB, 6.5TB from

2007-10, plus 37TB from 1986-2006587 DVDs from 2007-10332 users [@ 22mar13] with 3 registering

per day

MATRIX OF AGENTSPROJECT PARTNERS

LIVE ART ARCHIVES

THEATRE COLLECTION

CO-INVESTIGATORS

NRLA/ NEW MOVES

INSTITUTE OF LEARNING & RESEARCH TECHNOLOGIES

JISC DIGITAL MEDIA

HIGH-PERFORMANCE COMPUTING

EXTERNAL COMMUNITIES

ARTISTS & PRODUCERS

PEFORMANCE &VISUAL ARTSACADEMICS

ARCHIVES & MUSEUMS

STUDENTS & TEACHERS

INSTITUTIONAL

ETHICS COMMITTEES:FACULTY & UNIVERSITY

MANAGEMENT BOARDS:TC & HPC

IT SERVICES

LEGAL SERVICES

CONTRACT SERVICES

PUBLIC RELATIONS

NATIONAL

REGULATOR:JANET

LEGAL

PROJECT COLLABORATORS Co-investigators: Paul Clarke & Angela Piccini [PADS & STARS case-studies] Project staff: Research assistant: [technical & processes] Project assistant [digitizing & databases] Administrative assistants [artist communications] Theatre Collection [databases, artists liaison] & [ethical & IPR] From NRLA: Nikki Milican [artistic director & visiting professor 2006-10] From ILRT [interface/ site development & user-interactivity/ STARS

development] From JISC Digital Media [interface/ site development] From HPC [data storage & retrieval, new protocols for long-term data storage]

From RED [IPR artists’ contracts] & Birgit Whitman [research governance] From Legal Services [Director of Legal Services, ethical & legal issues; IPR

issues, contracts, provenance of archives]Arts Faculty Ethics Committee [ethical approval]

From Information Services [Director, leading university approval & internet security issues & liaison with regulator JANET]

From Public Relations [director, reputational issues]

TECHNICAL ASPECTS PRESERVATION: Every tape captured and held for archival purposes as raw .avi files, then converted to MPEG-2 files as a working format for trans-coding into DVDs for the TC archive and

copies for artists, then .flv files for the site.

Each file has a unique metadata profile, which was an implementation of the Performance Arts Data Structure [PADS].

ONLINE ARCHIVE: website combines data modelling, video streaming, large-scale data storage, video annotations, relational-data visualisations, bookmarking, collaboration, user-contributed material, searching and case-studies.

Integrated together into cohesive site using the open-source Drupal Content Management System.

The open-source Red5 streaming server provides the video-streaming functionality on a scale normally only associated with commercial providers.

Custom modules integrate research efforts from the earlier JISC-funded Semantic Tools for Arts Research [STARS] and Visualizing China projects, thus enhancing the STARS approach to user-generated functionality and graphic visualisation of data, pioneered by the Institute for Learning and Research Technology since 2004..

Users can annotate and tag video via its innovative player/editor interface; add new resources to the database via third-party sites; create new links between existing data; generate and share data-visualisation maps.

Open Source software underpins the online archive.

ETHICAL PROCESS Review archive for “challenging material.” University regulations governing the use of IT facilities prohibit access, storage,

display, receipt, downloading etc of offensive or obscene material. The researchers consider that these AV records are documents of art-works. Thus, University regulations in this regard should not apply, as the art-works recorded and to be made accessible will be covered by the defence of being in the “interests of science, literature, art or learning, or of other objects of general concern.”

The national regulator JANET, there is a risk that the project may fall outside of its acceptable use policy.

A risk to the University’s reputation of adverse public comments or publicity. A risk that some of the files contain material of “extreme pornographic images”,

defined by the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008. The original recordings will be restricted to viewing in person in the Theatre Collection by bona fida over-18 researchers only in accordance with its revised Access Policy.

A risk that, following the completion of the project and the formal handing over of the data stewardship to the Theatre Collection, future issues might arise with the challenging nature of some of this material. The Access Policy will be in place in time for the transfer of data stewardship to the TC.

LEGAL CONTEXT OBSCENE PUBLICATIONS ACT 1954 AND 1967

CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND IMMIGRATION ACT 2008 Section 63 criminalises possession of what it refers to as "extreme

pornographic images". Whether an image is "pornographic" or not is up to the magistrate or

jury to determine simply by looking at the image; it is not a question of the intentions of those who produced the image. If an image is held in a person's possession as part of a larger series of images, the question of whether it is pornographic is also determined by the context in which it appears. Therefore an image might be legal in some contexts, but not in other contexts.

The definition of "obscene" is not the same as that used in the Obscene Publications Acts, which requires that an image "deprave and corrupt" those likely to view it; instead this is the ordinary dictionary definition of "obscene". "Grossly offensive" and "disgusting" are given as examples of "obscene".

CHALLENGING MATERIAL PROCESS Investigators reviewed each file. U File contains no challenging material CS File contains challenging material of a sexual nature CV File contains challenging material of a violent nature CR File contains challenging material of a religious, ethnic or racially

based nature VCM File contains very challenging material of a more extreme nature

Investigators met to discuss their use of the above categories, identifying seven files relating to four works which they agreed should be referred to Legal Services in order to obtain external independent legal opinion.

Overall statistical analysis of the kinds of material as a percentage of the total number of files: U: 87.1%;

CS: 8%;CV: 4%;CR: 0.6%;

VCM: 0.3%.

Investigators referred 4 works to the lawyers, plus an extra 3 works identified by the archivists for context.

INSTITUTIONAL APPROVAL University and JANET regulations: JANET confirmed that the University has discretion to approve use and storage of material of the

nature under consideration on the basis of properly authorised teaching or research activity. A review panel considered all of the points relating to the academic context, ethical and legal

issues. The home page of the NRLA website will contain a warning about the nature of the archive,

indicating that it is not suitable for viewing by under 18s. Online registration process will have an in-built delay of 48 hours before access is given. Procedures will allow users of the material to request removal of either specific material within the

archive or content posted by users of the website online. The Theatre Collection Management Committee will have operational responsibility for these procedures.

The suppressed material will only be available for viewing to bona fide adult academics and researchers on personal application and visit to the Theatre Collection in the University. Under no circumstances will under 18s be given access to the suppressed material.

The online archive will only give access to materials where consent has been given. Where consent has not been given the material concerned will still be contained in the archive and stored on the RSDF, but access will only be given to bona fide academics and researchers visiting the Theatre Collection in person.

Into the Future: online archivehttp://bristol.ac.uk/nrla/online-archive