WWW Ircam: Composition, design and mediation

Caspar

Cultural, Artistic and Scientific knowledge for Preservation, Access and Retrieval

Work Description/Objectives

The goal of this pilot project was to create the framework at the leading edge of both current and emerging technology and standards for the conservation, access and dissemination of national heritage digital resources.

Using the OAIS standard as a foundation, this project aimed to develop a generic technical environment adapted to the conservation of complex digital data in different contexts taking into account various angles such as the management of the conservation/access life cycle, the engineering and formalization of the knowledge, generally implicit, connected to the use of the conserved data. This environment was the subject of a validation, through the development and implementation of specific platforms in three major domains: scientific data (particularly spatial, with the European Space Agency), the cultural data (UNESCO) and the interactive artistic pieces that could be linked with performing arts (e.g. music, dance, interactive installations, multimedia and virtual reality in collaboration with Ina-GRM, the University of Leeds and the CIANT).

IRCAM coordinated and implemented an artistic platform, through the conservation of the collection of interactive pieces created at IRCAM. In the tradition of the Mustica project, this platform facilitated the conservation and dissemination of the information and digital elements necessary for the performance of an interactive piece (e.g. Max patches, sound files, elements from the score, etc.) in a structured format. It also aimed to progress the formalization of the musical descriptions of works - independent of any technical implementation, in order to prepare their long-term preservation.

Another objective for data preservation is the development of tools enabling the portage of works, consequently simplifying the task of adapting to technological developments (e.g. changes due to new versions of applications and operating systems) - an undertaking often left to computer-music designers.