The choice of artefacts and the meaningfulness attributed to them have changed over the last decades. Today the main concern is no longer to produce authenticity in the sense of truth by means of the selected media. Instead, performances are accessed in various ways in order to communicate knowledge and information which, although fragmentary, still constitutes an understanding of the performance. Here, the contextual aspect should always be taken into account, as it determines the information content of an artefact. But the affective characteristics of a performance can also be conveyed via certain artefacts without falling into the authenticity trap; this is especially true of forms of artistic transcription and re-inscription. Since a single artefact has limited meaningfulness, efforts should be made towards establishing a range of artefacts. Every artefact is linked with several authors. This is also true of apparently objective, documentary video recordings and snapshots. Questioning the function of a future artefact helps to use the documentation media effectively.
Recommendations:
- Every performance calls for specific forms of documentation relating to the medial characteristics of the performance. For example, visually oriented performances require different documentation from acoustically oriented performances.
- Careful planning and organisation of technical recordings helps avoid misunderstandings and disappointment.
- Artists should take responsibility for later representations of their ideas or be involved in planning the documentation.
- Prior to documenting a performance, one should gain information on the dramaturgy, duration and sites involved from the artists and organisers.
- Artistic forms of documentation should also disclose the situative context.
- Artists, document-makers and theorists should be aware of their function and authorial position, contributing to the work, when they produce artefacts. For this reason, authorship should always be made transparent and arranged with the performance artists.