Abstract
Audiovisual heritage comprises a large part of our cultural legacy. The development of a codified theoretical basis for the preservation of audiovisual materials became a concern only about three decades ago. Today, it is widely accepted that content migration, in particular analog-to-digital trans-coding, is the only viable solution to the long-term preservation of these materials. This chapter discusses the main challenges posed by the trans-coding of historical sound recordings, which can be summarized in the “disembodiment” of the information represented by the carrier. Special attention is given to the solutions that computer science offers in terms of methodological principles and software tools. Finally, the concept of digital philology is introduced, with practical examples of its implications on the preservation workflow.
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Notes
- 1.
Ray Edmonson, Memory of the World: General Guidelines to Safeguard Documentary Heritage (Paris: UNESCO, 2002), 12. Accessed May 5, 2018. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001256/125637e.pdf.
- 2.
Margaret Hedstrom, It’s About Time: Research Challenges in Digital Archiving and Long-Term Preservation. Final Report: Workshop on Research Challenges in Digital Archiving (Washington, DC: National Science Foundation and Library of Congress, 2002).
- 3.
Dietrich Schüller, The Ethics of Preserving Audio and Video Documents (Paris: UNESCO, 2006).
- 4.
Walter Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (Frankfurt am Main: Schram Verlag, 1955).
- 5.
Ray Edmonson, Audiovisual Archiving: Philosophy and Principles (Paris: UNESCO, 2004), 14.
- 6.
For an extended account of existing methodologies see the International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives—Technical Committee 05 (IASA-TC 05) (2014), the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA)—Audiovisual and Multimedia Section (2004), Media Preservation Initiative Task Force (2011), and Bressan (2013).
- 7.
Giuseppe Gigliozzi, Introduzione all’uso del Computer Negli Studi Letterari (Milan: Bruno Mondadori, 2003).
- 8.
F. Bressan, S. Canazza, T. Vets, and M. Leman, “Hermeneutic Implications of Cultural Encoding: A Reflection on Audio Recordings and Interactive Installation Art,” in Digital Libraries and Multimedia Archives. Proceedings of the 12th Italian Research Conference on Digital Libraries (IRCDL 2016) (Elsevier, Procedia – Computer Sciences, 2017), 47–58.
- 9.
George Brock-Nannestad, “The Rationale Behind Operational Conservation Theory,” in Conservation Without Limits: IIC Nordic Group XV Congress, ed. Riitta Koskivirta (Helsinki, FI: IIC Nordic Group, 2000).
- 10.
Nicholas Negroponte, Being Digital (New York: Vintage Books, 1995).
- 11.
Federica Bressan, Sergio Canazza, Carlo Fantozzi, and Niccolò Pretto, “Tape Music Archives: From Preservation to Interaction,” International Journal on Digital Libraries 18, no. 3 (2017), 233–249.
- 12.
Sergio Canazza, Carlo Fantozzi, and Niccolò Pretto, “Accessing Tape Music Documents on Mobile Devices,” ACM Transaction on Multimedia Computing Communications 12, no. 1s (2015), 1–20.
- 13.
Class Materials presented by Professor Robert Eno, Indiana University, 2011.
- 14.
F. A. Marcos Marín, “Where is Electronic Philology Going? The Present and Future of a Discipline,” in Proceedings of the First Seminar on Computers, Literature and Philology, ed. Domenico Fiormonte and Jonathan Usher (Edinburgh: University of Oxford, 2001), 11–22.
- 15.
Wido van Peursen, “Text Comparison and Digital Creativity: An Introduction,” in Text Comparison and Digital Creativity: The Production of Presence and Meaning in Digital Text Scholarship, ed. Wido van Peursen, Ernst Thoutenhoofd, and Adriaan van der Weel (Leiden: Brill, 2010), 1–27.
- 16.
Cesare Brandi, Theory of Restoration (Florence: Arte e restauro, 2005).
- 17.
George Boston, Memory of the World: Safeguarding the Documentary Heritage, a Guide to Standards, Recommended Practices and Reference Literature Related to the Preservation of Documents of All Kinds (Paris, France: UNESCO, 1998). Accessed May 5, 2018. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/ulis/cgi-bin/ulis.pl?catno=112676.
- 18.
Ibid.
- 19.
Dietrich Schüller, “Preserving the Facts for the Future: Principles and Practices for the Transfer of Analog Audio Documents into the Digital Domain,” Journal of Audio Engineering Society 49, no. 7–8 (2001): 618–621.
- 20.
Federica Bressan, “The Preservation of Sound Archives: A Computer-based Approach to Quality Control” (PhD thesis, Sciences Engineering Medicine, Verona, 2013), 34–35. Accessed May 5, 2018. http://samp.dei.unipd.it/proceedings/12_WSa1_01.pdf.
References
Benjamin, Walter. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Frankfurt am Main: Schram Verlag, 1955.
Boston, George. Memory of the World: Safeguarding the Documentary Heritage, a Guide to Standards, Recommended Practices and Reference Literature Related to the Preservation of Documents of All Kinds. Paris, France: UNESCO, 1998. Accessed May 5, 2018. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/ulis/cgi-bin/ulis.pl?catno=112676.
Brandi, Cesare. Theory of Restoration. Florence: Arte e restauro, 2005.
Bressan, Federica. “The Preservation of Sound Archives: A Computer-based Approach to Quality Control.” PhD thesis, Sciences Engineering Medicine, Verona, 2013. Accessed May 5, 2018. http://samp.dei.unipd.it/proceedings/12_WSa1_01.pdf.
Bressan, Federica, Sergio Canazza, Carlo Fantozzi, and Niccolò Pretto. “Tape Music Archives: From Preservation to Interaction.” International Journal on Digital Libraries 18, no. 3 (2017): 233–249.
Bressan, F., S. Canazza, T. Vets, and M. Leman. “Hermeneutic Implications of Cultural Encoding: A Reflection on Audio Recordings and Interactive Installation Art.” In Digital Libraries and Multimedia Archives. Proceedings of the 12th Italian Research Conference on Digital Libraries (IRCDL 2016), 47–58, Elsevier, Procedia – Computer Sciences, 2017.
Brock-Nannestad, George. “The Rationale Behind Operational Conservation Theory.” In Conservation Without Limits: IIC Nordic Group XV Congress, edited by Riitta Koskivirta, 21–33. Helsinki, FI: IIC Nordic Group, 2000.
Canazza, Sergio, Carlo Fantozzi, and Niccolò Pretto. “Accessing Tape Music Documents on Mobile Devices.” ACM Transaction on Multimedia Computing Communications 12, no. 1s (2015): 1–20.
Edmonson, Ray. Memory of the World: General Guidelines to Safeguard Documentary Heritage. Paris: UNESCO, 2002. Accessed May 5, 2018. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001256/125637e.pdf.
Edmonson, Ray. Audiovisual Archiving: Philosophy and Principles. Paris: UNESCO, 2004.
Eno, Robert. Teaching materials presented at Indiana University, 2011. http://www.indiana.edu/~p374/c511/C511_4-Philology.pdf.
Gigliozzi, Giuseppe. Introduzione all’uso del Computer Negli Studi Letterari. Milan: Bruno Mondadori, 2003.
Hedstrom, Margaret. It’s About Time: Research Challenges in Digital Archiving and Long-Term Preservation. Final Report: Workshop on Research Challenges in Digital Archiving. Washington, DC: National Science Foundation and Library of Congress, 2002.
IASA Technical Committee. Handling and Storage of Audio and Video Carriers. Edited by Dietrich Schüller and Albrecht Häfner. Milton Keynes: IASA Technical Committee, 2014. Accessed May 5, 2018. https://www.iasa-web.org/tc05/handling-storage-audio-video-carriers.
Indiana University Bloomington Media Preservation Initiative Task Force. Meeting the Challenge of Media Preservation: Strategies and Solutions. Bloomington: Indiana University, 2011.
International Federation of Library Association (IFLA). “Guidelines for Audiovisual and Multimedia Materials in Libraries and Other Institutions.” IFLA Professional Reports 80 (2004). Accessed May 5, 2018. https://www.ifla.org/files/assets/hq/publications/professional-report/80.pdf.
Marcos Marín, F. A. “Where is Electronic Philology Going? The Present and Future of a Discipline.” In Proceedings of the First Seminar on Computers, Literature and Philology, edited by Domenico Fiormonte and Jonathan Usher, 11–22. Edinburgh: University of Oxford, 2001.
Negroponte, Nicholas. Being Digital. New York: Vintage Books, 1995.
Schüller, Dietrich. “Preserving the Facts for the Future: Principles and Practices for the Transfer of Analog Audio Documents into the Digital Domain.” Journal of Audio Engineering Society 49, no. 7–8 (2001): 618–621.
Schüller, Dietrich. The Ethics of Preserving Audio and Video Documents. Paris: UNESCO, 2006.
van Peursen, Wido. “Text Comparison and Digital Creativity: An Introduction.” In Text Comparison and Digital Creativity: The Production of Presence and Meaning in Digital Text Scholarship, edited by Wido van Peursen, Ernst Thoutenhoofd, and Adriaan van der Weel, 1–27. Leiden: Brill, 2010.
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Bressan, F. (2018). A Philological Approach to Sound Preservation. In: levenberg, l., Neilson, T., Rheams, D. (eds) Research Methods for the Digital Humanities. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96713-4_14
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