Abstract
Since 2009, the Asian Shakespeare Intercultural Archive (A|S|I|A; a-s-i-a-web.org) has archived audiovisual recordings, scripts, and production materials of some of the key intercultural productions of East and Southeast Asia. Notions of ownership, representation and interculturality are tested when cultural productions that are translations and creative interpretations of Shakespeare’s text and Asian performance forms are hosted in a single online repository. Focusing on the archive’s video player the chapter draws attention to a complex site of intercultural reproduction and reception, where diverse perspectives, translations, and cultural entanglements are assembled through digital archiving. By analysing the website and its features as an entry point through which one experiences the intercultural, Lim shows how translation is necessary to build a digital environment for intercultural performance.
The Asian Shakespeare Intercultural Archive is a collaborative archive created by two major Shakespeare projects together with individual scholars, practitioners, and translators: “Relocating Intercultural Theatre” (Singapore Ministry of Education Academic Research Fund Tier 2 and National University of Singapore) and “A Web Archive of Asian Shakespeare Productions” (JSPS Kaken/Gunma-Nagoya City Universities, Japan).
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Notes
- 1.
The online archive is available at http://a-s-i-a-web.org.
- 2.
The database here refers to the detailed information about the performance event. The information is grouped according to four main categories of data: (1) Production; (2) Reception; (3) Art/Forms; (4) Points of Reference. As the website states, “data is collected and written on the live performance event, not on the video-recording of it collected in the archive” (A|S|I|A Web, “Database”). Thus, the database also contributes to providing a context for the production, where the scope of the data is also “knowledge about one instance of historically and culturally embedded practices”. For a more detailed elaboration on the categories and how information is grouped, please go to http://a-s-i-a-web.org/en/database.php.
- 3.
English, Mandarin, and Japanese translations of the Korean production script of Mokwha Repertory Theatre’s Romeo and Juliet (2005). Theatre company’s translation by Kim Ah-Jeong and Paul Matthews of the production script by Oh Tae-Suk, both script and video kindly donated to A|S|I|A by Mokwha Repertory Company. Edited by Hwang Ha Young and Yong Li Lan.
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This chapter is dedicated to the late founding member of the archive, Professor KOBAYASHI Kaori.
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Lim, A.E.H. (2018). Digital Environments for Intercultural Content: A Case Study on the Asian Shakespeare Intercultural Archive. In: Whatley, S., Cisneros, R., Sabiescu, A. (eds) Digital Echoes. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73817-8_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73817-8_10
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