§01 / THE PRACTICE
Performing arts, ephemeral architecture, installation art and immersive exhibitions preserved as cultural heritage.
§02 / THE PROBLEM
What remains was made for other purposes
REMNANT 01
A trailer cut to sell tickets
Graded for excitement: an advertisement later asked to serve as memory. It keeps the brightest thirty seconds; the work’s rhythm, structure, and duration are left behind.
REMNANT 02
Conceptual sketches instead of technical drawings
They describe an intention: the scenography as promised, not as it finally stood on the stage.
REMNANT 03
Photographs chosen for the press
Framed for publicity and balanced for print: the brightest scenes, the work’s palette corrected away.
REMNANT 04
A console file no room can replay
The lighting desk’s numbers without detailed information of the whole technical system. Replayed in another venue, they produce a different picture.
REMNANT 05
A Google Drive nobody else can navigate
The production’s files, organized in one colleague’s head — and unreadable the day they move on.
REMNANT 06
The knowledge nobody wrote down
How the show actually ran — protocols, manual timings, live communication — carried in the crew’s heads and easily lost.
§03 / METHOD
FIRST CONVERSATION
→
01
Framework Design
→
02
Data Management
→
03
Technical Drawings
→
04
Live Operations Report
→
05
Video Recording
→
06
Graphic Publishing
→
ARCHIVE
→
READER
01
Framework Design
A plan for what survives, made before rehearsals begin
02
Data Management
Production data that is already an archive
03
Technical Drawings
Drawings so precise the set could be rebuilt from them
04
Live Operations Report
How the work runs, written down
05
Video Recording
Filming for the archive, not the trailer
06
Graphic Publishing
Books and dossiers cut from the record
§04 / PRINCIPLES
§05 / ENGAGEMENT
PHASE 01 — FIRST CONVERSATION
Before rehearsals begin
The first conversation settles scope, standards, and rights — and names the archive the record will go to, while contracts are still open.
→ DOCUMENTATION PLAN
PHASE 02 — DURING PRODUCTION
While the work takes shape
The production database doubles as the archive’s backbone; every file, version, and revision stays traceable as the production evolves.
→ DATA SYSTEM
PHASE 03 — CAPTURE WEEK
At full running order
Archival capture planned around the piece: up to 12K RAW footage, color held physically accurate to the work’s palette, clearances signed at the production desk.
→ PRESERVATION MASTER
PHASE 04 — AFTER CLOSING
When the run ends
One OAIS-aligned package to the archive; access copies and the touring dossier cut from the same master.
→ ARCHIVAL PACKAGE · TOURING DOSSIER
§06 / THE PRACTICE
PRACTICE
Accountable end to end — the practice that plans the record is the practice that hands it over.
DESIGN LITERACY
Practitioners from inside live creation — lighting, scenography, exhibition — reading the work the way its makers do.
STANDARDS
UNESCO 2003 · OAIS / ISO 14721 · IASA TC-04 & TC-06 · BIM / ISO 19650. For every deliverable: to what standard, and why.
INSTRUMENTS
Apps and workflows built in-house, handcrafted to the demands of each production.
DELIVERABLES
Documentation plans, as-built drawings and BIM models, cue and operations records, preservation masters, OAIS packages, technical databases and dossiers.
TERRAIN
Stages, theatres, museums, galleries, festivals — and the archives, universities, foundations and collections that keep live work alive.