Performance Documentation

DocPerform is a multi- and interdisciplinary research project based at City, University of London. Led by members of the Department of Library & Information Science, it comprises scholars and practitioners from the fields of performing arts and library & information science. The project concerns conceptual, methodological and technological innovations in the documentation of performance, and the extent to which performance may itself be considered to be a document.

The collection of papers in this special issue of Proceedings from the Document Academy are selected from the second DocPerform Symposium, held at City, University of London, 6–7 November 2017.

The DocPerform team would like to thank the DOCAM editors and reviewers for their support for this publication.

Where does live performance end and life begin? Why are such distinctions made, between live art and life itself? What if one tries to overcome these formal differences? Is it possible for me to approach my everyday life as a documentary performance? I feel that this question may lead me into uncharted territory. The end of art as we know it perhaps? Or the beginning of a more conscious way of living?

Constança Capdeville (1937-1992) foi compositora, pianista, percussionista e professora, desenvolveu uma prática e re exão estética que gostava de designar como teatro-música, ligando a investigação sonora a elementos teatrais e gestuais, bem como a poesia, literatura e cinema, na tentativa de descobrir e reinventar novas formas de criação e da própria performance 1 musical. Por essa razão, a compositora é atualmente considerada a grande gura do teatro-música em Portugal. Constança Capdeville nasceu em Barcelona no dia 16 de março de 1937, em plena Guerra Civil Espanhola, e costumava dizer que tinha nascido debaixo do

Auslander (2006) states that images generated from performance documentation and practices stemming from performance to camera could be considered ‘performative’ if they are meant to be seen as happening in the ‘now’ they are viewed, with the spectator as the current intended audience. This thesis takes Auslander’s supposition and situates the term performativity within an established academic discourse as a social, political or cultural ‘doing’ and questions what, apart from performing, performance ‘does’ in its transcription to a photographic image. I propose a ‘doing’ occurs because the intentional performance of a given act invokes the power of citation, in turn setting in motion broader cultural references. The contribution to knowledge this thesis makes is the proposition that aspects of the agency of performativity cannot be fully present in the moment of performance, but can be subsequently revealed by the photographic image as it affords the différance [distance/deferral] the spectator requires to consider the action within a wider structural unconsciousness.

Originating from a conceptualist tradition of using ‘art as experiment’, the hypothesis is tested heuristically using a practice-based method of performance to camera. This is presented in the manner of autoethnographic fieldwork, which explores the time-based tensions between performance and photography in three different ways. Firstly, through instantaneous performance actions and the subsequent withdrawal of motion in the still image; secondly, the staging of one-off performance interventions and how they are perceived outside of the time and place in which they occurred via the photograph; and lastly, how repetition is used as a visual device to allow the spectator to ‘revisit’ their framework of understanding. By connecting critical reflection of these photographic investigations to theoretical perspectives, each chapter concludes how viewing the performance outside of the live act in the form of a photograph uncovers the ‘doing’ of its performativity.

The final conclusion reviews why performativity surpasses the presence/absence binary previously perceived in photographic documentation, and how we might revise our usage of the term ‘performative’ in the area of performance to camera and studies of performance documentation in the light of these discoveries.

This paper proposes a model that visualises the effect of decision making in the conservation and presentation of complex artworks: a behaviour index. It is a conceptual tool that is especially useful when managing unconventional artworks that are variable in nature. Inspired by the variable media approach, the concept of an artwork’s ‘behaviour’ is adopted to analyse an artwork’s successive manifestations over time. This reveals the impact of museum practice and the role of the people who conserve, install or perform the work. The idea is to implement the concept of a behaviour index as an interactive digital tool in museum collection management systems. This not only provides insight into an artwork’s biography, but also enforces accountability from those having to make decisions about the artwork’s appearance every time it is put on display.

В основе этого текста результаты исследования публичной речи как возможности описать функциональную трансформацию текста для театра, которую он претерпевает в актуальных перформативных искусствах. Наша гипотеза состоит в том, что изменения в эстетике приводит к смене референциальной или структурной модели текста для театра. Текст драмы уступает место другим моделям, описывать которые необходимо с учетом коммуникативной теории устной речи и теории перформативной эстетики.
Цель исследования создание истории экспериментального театра ХХ века, понимаемого как лаборатория публичной речи. Согласно представлениям о материальности спектакля, который создается перформативными средствами, голос, пространство перформанса, присутствие подчиняются временным рамкам перформанса. Устная речь может быть рассмотрена как мультимедийный перформанс. Исторические казусы, исследуемые в нашей работе, позволяют рассмотреть, каким образом деконструируется в театре речь как средство коммуникации.

In this practice-led thesis, I argue that the powerful potential of performance art lies in the dynamic character of its process, evolving according to forces of fragmentation and union; this leads those involved in a performance to experience reconfiguration in their perceptions, thoughts, and emotions. By examining the dynamics occurring during the unfolding of a piece, exploring the essence of its “happening”, I aim to offer a deeper understanding of how performance art engages with the world. I do so by investigating some key moments of the processes of five artworks in combination with scholarship encompassing various research fields such as phenomenology, continental philosophy, avant-gardes history, art history, performance studies, place and space studies.
The works are 'The Foreigner' and 'Mapping the Sound', which I realised for this doctoral project, Marina Abramovic's 'The House with the Ocean View', Ana Mendieta's 'Silueta Series', and Mike Parr's 'Daydream Island'.

This essay is a study of performance and performativity in visual art in contemporary Cambodia. I argue that, while stage performances often draw on existing traditions of performance, and rapidly codify new conventions, performance in visual art is largely uninterested in existing traditions of performance, and instead relies on systems of codification from visual art, especially photography. In close readings of performance works by Khvay Samnang, Lim Sokchanlina, Amy Lee Sanford, and Anida Yoeu Ali, I argue that documentation is central to the performance practices of visual artists, and that live and mediatized performances are mutually dependent and inter-animating. I suggest four key, overlapping reasons for the centrality of documentation to performances by visual artists. These are: firstly, that artists in Cambodia are chiefly exposed to international performances through documentation rather than in live form; secondly, that
documentation renders performance legible as visual art in the contemporary Cambodian context; thirdly, that photo- and video-documenting is an automatic and everyday activity in urban Cambodia for those with access to the technology; and finally, that the format of some performances is actually shaped by the apparatuses used to record their documentation. I conclude by proposing that any meaningful understanding of contemporaneity in the Cambodian context must encompass performance in all its forms.

RÉSUMÉ
“La performance est contemporaine:” la performance et sa documentation chez les plasticiens cambodgiens
Roger Nelson
Il s’agit d’une étude de la performance et de la performativité chez les plasticiens du Cambodge. Si les arts de la scène au Cambodge de nos jours puisent ses ressources dans les traditions théâtrales khmères, il n’en est pas de même de la pratique de la performance chez les plasticiens, lesquels font
peu de cas des dites traditions, se référant plutôt aux codes des arts visuels, surtout à ceux de la photographie. L’analyse des oeuvres de Khvay Samnang, Lim Sokchanlina, Amy Lee Sanford et Anida Yoeu Ali, démontre que la documentation se trouve au coeur de l’art tel qu’il est pratiqué au Cambodge, où les formats en direct et médiatisés sont interactifs et interdépendants. J’identifie quatre raisons sous-jacentes au rôle central que joue la documentation dans ces pratiques. Tout d’abord il faut dire que la première rencontre que peut avoir les artistes cambodgiens avec la performance sur la scène internationale se fait le plus souvent à travers des enregistrements et non en direct ; ensuite, la documentation rend la performance lisible en tant qu’oeuvre plastique pour
un public cambodgien ; troisièmement l’enregistrement photographique et vidéo rentre dans les moeurs quotidiens des citadins ayant accès aux technologies; enfin, la forme même d’une performance peut se définir en fonction du travail d’enregistrement. L’article conclut que toute caractérisation de
la contemporanéité au Cambodge doit prendre en considération l’éventail des arts du spectacle au Cambodge, des arts de la scène proprement dits à la performance chez les plasticiens.

សង្ខេប
“Performance គឺបច្ចុប្បន្ន” ៖ ការសម្តែងនិងការរៀបចំឯកសារទស្សន៍សិល្បៈ
នៅកម្ពុជា
Roger Nelson
សំណេរនេះជាការសិក្សាទៅលើការសមែង្ត និងលទ្ធភាពសម្តែងកុ្នងទស្សន៍សិល្បៈនៅកមុ្ពជា។ ខុំ្ញហ៊ាននិយាយថា ការសមែ្តងលើឆាកច្រើនតែផ្អែកទៅលើប្រពៃណីសម្តែងដែលធ្លាប់មានមក ហើយមិនយូរមិនឆាប់តងែ តបែ ងតើ្ក ជាទមប្លា ម់ យួ ដលែ អណំ ើះតទៅគនេ ងឹ ធតាើ្វ មគ ្នារឯី ការសមងែ្ត (Performance) នៅកងុ្ន ទសស្ ន៍ សិល្បៈវិញ មិនសូវយកចិត្តទុកដាក់ទៅប្រពៃណី ឬទម្លាប់នៃការសម្តែងឡើយ គឺតែងតែផ្អែកទៅលើក្បួនច្បាប់នៃ ទស្សន៍សិល្បៈនោះតែម្តង ជាពិសេសបើនិយាយពីរូបថត។ ក្រោយពីការពិនិត្យល្អិតល្អន់ទៅលើការសម្តែង
នៃខ្វៃ សំណាង, លឹម សុខចាន់លីណា, Amy Lee Sanford និង អានីដា យើុ អាលី មក ខ្ញុំឃើញថាឯកសារមាន សារសំខាន់លើសលុបទៅលើការសម្តែងនៃ សិល្បករក្នុងវិស័យនេះ ហើយម៉្យាងទៀតការសម្តែងឲ្យ ទស្សនា ផ្ទាល់ឬដោយមានការផ្សាយផ្ទាល់ផង ក៏ទទួលនិងជះឥទ្ធិពលទៅវិញទៅមកដែរជាមួយឯកសារ។ ខ្ញុំឃើញថាមានគន្លឹះឬចំណុច៤សំខាន់។ ទី១គឺសិល្បករខ្មែរច្រើនតែឃើញការសម្តែងនានានៃបរទេសតាមរយៈឯកសារពោលគឺពុំមែនតាមការទស្សនាផ្ទាល់ប៉ុន្មានទេ។ ទី២ ឯកសារទាំងនោះជួយជម្រុញឲ្យអ្នកទស្សនាងាយយល់ការសម្តែងក្នុងក្រប ខណ្ឌនៃទស្សន៍សិល្បៈនាបច្ចុប្បន្ននេះ។ ទី៣ ការរៀបចំឯកសាររូបថត, ខ្សែវីដេអូ ជាការ
ដែលគេនិយមបំផុតនៅកម្ពុជា។ ទី៤ គឺរបៀបរបប, លំដាប់, ខ្នាតនៃការសម្តែងខ្លះកើតឡើង ដោយបត់បែនទៅតាមប្រព័ន្ធនិងបរិក្ខារប្រើប្រាស់ក្នុងការរៀបចំឯកសារ។ ខ្ញុំសន្និដ្នានដោយស្នើថា ដើម្បីយល់ពីបច្ចុប្បន្នភាពនៃសិល្បៈនៅប្រទេសម្ពុជាឲ្យបានពេញលេញ គេត្រូវតែយកការសម្តែងគ្រប់បែបយ៉ាងដែលមានមកជាគំនិត
ពិចារណា។

The Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS) promotes the creation, preservation and dissemination of digital resources. The AHDS has five subject centres: Archaeology; History;
Language, Literature and Linguistics; Performing Arts; and Visual Arts. Each of these subject centres makes a significant contribution to its individual subject communities. AHDS
Performing Arts supports research, learning and teaching with digital resources related to music, dance, theatre, radio, film, television and performance. Digital resources are widely
varied and can be in a variety of structures, scopes and file formats. Digital resources currently held by AHDS Performing Arts range from small highly focused databases to a very large
collection of images, video and 3D objects. The Arts and Humanities Data Service provides access to these resources through its Website, and one of the primary aims of the AHDS is to support and facilitate preservation to ensure the longevity of resources it holds and to enable the curation of these resources by user communities.

AHDS Performing Arts is working towards developing a greater appreciation as to how the higher education community uses digital resources and how opportunities for research, teaching and learning in Performing Arts disciplines can be enhanced. This study is designed to understand the nature of ‘digital resources’ created and used in the Performing Arts, how
their creation and use is integrated into the research, teaching and learning process, what methods scholars are using, and what kinds of services, including guidance and advice, AHDS
Performing Arts should be providing. The scoping study found that, while Performing Arts communities in Higher Education demonstrate highly innovative and experimental engagement in the creation and use of digital resources, the development of a core digital collection at AHDS Performing Arts has not kept pace with demand. This scoping study analyses the use and creation of digital resources in the Performing Arts community through desk-based research, an online survey and a series of in-depth interviews. Key to these findings is identifying and addressing the needs of the Performing Arts community through evidence based knowledge gathering in the areas of music, theatre, dance, film, television, radio and performance. This report presents conclusions based on evidence gathered during 2006 and makes recommendations. These findings and conclusions will form the foundation for establishing for AHDS Performing Arts a proactive vision and a strategy for delivering that vision which will be presented to the AHDS Executive later in 2006. By sharing the outcome of the Scoping Study with funding bodies, such as the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), it is hoped that their attention will be drawn to issues related to the research and teaching and learning needs of the
Performing Arts community.

Two assignments I wrote for Anette Baldauf, one of my dedicated mentors at a.pass (advanced performance and scenography studies). For these short papers Anette had asked me to summarize two texts included in a book on THE ARCHIVE, edited by Charles Merewether; one by Michel Foucault and another by Giorgio Agamben. Next to that, I was expected to write on how these texts related to my own practice and research.

The problem of documenting performance is discussed via viewer testimonies of Jerzy Grotowski’s practices. On the one hand, Erika Fischer-Lichte’s notion of performance involves the viewer’s experience in the aesthetic work. On the other hand, this conception situates documenting the experience beyon­d the realm of performance. In light of the limitations Grotowski placed on documenting and disseminating his own work, it is especially interesting to analyze viewer testimonies. The author examines several texts by professional viewers, analyzing the ways they reconstruct the performances they saw and the elements on which their reconstructions are based (literary texts, personal texts, and texts by other views). A key element in these descriptions is the appeal their authors make to an experience that cannot be expressed. The appeal to this experience shapes a specific temporality, combining the time of viewing and the time of writing, and activating not only the possibility of analysis but also the experience of the various senses.

Auslander (2006) states that images generated from performance documentation and practices stemming from performance to camera could be considered ‘performative’ if they are meant to be seen as happening in the ‘now’ they are viewed, with the spectator as the current intended audience. This thesis takes Auslander’s supposition and situates the term performativity within an established academic discourse as a social, political or cultural ‘doing’ and questions what, apart from performing, performance ‘does’ in its transcription to a photographic image. I propose a ‘doing’ occurs because the intentional performance of a given act invokes the power of citation, in turn setting in motion broader cultural references. The contribution to knowledge this thesis makes is the proposition that aspects of the agency of performativity cannot be fully present in the moment of performance, but can be subsequently revealed by the photographic image as it affords the differance [distance/deferral] t...

In the wake of a recent, short retrospective of John Cassavetes and Shirley Clarke at Seoul Art Cinema, I was asked to contribute an article.

After mulling over for a while, I decided to narrow down my initial, avowedly grandiose scale down to 'notes' on <Shadows>(1959) and <Faces>(1968), two of his early, powerful, electrifying and often hypnotic films. 

While I draw on Godard and Deleuze, along with Jean Rouch, toward the end of the piece, I note how his films no less strikingly resonate with <Titicut Follies>(Frederick Wiseman, 1967) and <Portrait of Jason>(Shirley Clarke, 1967) in terms of 'performative documentation/documentary' or 'documentary of performace.' Rhyming with Deleuze, I draw attention to grave implications of these volatile faces and bodies, whose precarious, mercurial states steadfastly ask if we have faith in them as sheer surfaces and, by extension, the world.

Note: In retrospect, this essay partakes of my decade-long fascination with and reflections on the genealogy of 'face as sur-face' in contemporary art and culture, a topic to which two of my scholarly articles readily suscribe, along with a long overdue article on contemporary Korean cinema. One day I hope I can turn them into a separate book on its own.

Two assignments I wrote for Anette Baldauf, one of my dedicated mentors at a.pass (advanced performance and scenography studies). For these short papers Anette had asked me to summarize two texts included in a book on THE ARCHIVE, edited by Charles Merewether; one by Michel Foucault and another by Giorgio Agamben. Next to that, I was expected to write on how these texts related to my own practice and research.

Важность документации в новых художественных и музейных практиках, слияние архивной и музейной деятельности, «взаимопроникновение» архива и современного искусства активно обсуждаются исследователями последние двадцать пять лет. На русском языке практически нет посвященных российским кейсам исследований и анализа международного опыта в этой сфере. Автор ставит своей целью кратко описать мотивы создания, историю и структуру архивной коллекции Музея «Гараж», а также поместить ее в контекст мировых практик формирования схожих собраний и актуальных форм работы по сохранению истории современного искусства в музеях. Наблюдения автора основаны на личном опыте создания и хранения архива в научном отделе музея, а также на изучении практик других культурных институций в рамках этой деятельности, и являются попыткой саморефлексии.

À partir de l'analyse approfondie de deux corpus d’images – quelques photographies de théâtre prises par le photographe tchécoslovaque Josef Koudelka, et une photographie-performance de l’artiste chinois Ai Weiwei – cet article propose d'envisager la photographie de théâtre non seulement comme la simple reproduction d'une œuvre d’art théâtral, mais aussi comme l'enregistrement d’un événement.

This article encourages further discussion of certain concepts and practices for the music theatre creations by the composer Constança Capdeville (1937-92) in keeping with the time and context of her compositions. Her music theatre works incorporate by a certain hybridism as they juxtapose various artistic expressions such as dance, music, and theatre. Throughout the 1970s, the performance concept as understood today was not fully recognized, either by composers or by the performers, who collaborated with Capdeville within the context of the Portuguese music scene. In this regard, the composer António de Sousa Dias believes this stemmed from the tendency to connect the term with performance art or with certain positions linked to happenings or free improvization, which were not the main concern of Capdeville. Given the difficulty in classifying her musical works, we here discuss some etymological issues around the performance and re-performance concepts. Capdeville's music theatre works combine different artistic expressions leading us to reflect on documentation strategies including interdisciplinary approaches from fields such as (digital) philology, computer science, archiving research and performing arts documentation, detailing here some perspectives and practices currently applied for preserving such artistic productions.

In this article, I examine the evolution of The Bianwen Book I by the Taiwanese artist, Chen Chieh-Jen, addressing questions about art documentation and archiving that are particularly germane within current discourses of art history, theory, and practice.

This article focuses on the relationship between performance documents and visual art objects in response to a philosophical position concerning documentation forms held by Philip Auslander. By addressing visual art forms over what may be argued as modern technological approaches to documenting performance – digital video-recording and still photography – this article reports on a selection of practice-based research projects within the canon of Performance Art that use non-traditional forms of performance documentation to propose that bringing together visual art and performance-related discourses is helpful in articulating the document. Rather than focusing on a discussion concerning a politics of form connected to the document in terms of representation and ideas surrounding ‘truth’ (i.e. how different forms of document may be hierarchically placed in their attempt to represent an action that is now absent), the article concentrates on the act of producing documentation as a process that is both liminal and embodied. Addressing and then departing from earlier research by the author that prioritizes different levels of witness via the document, the main research projects address first-hand witness to gain a better understanding of how the act of documentation can be viewed as a performative process and an opportunity for social communication. Whereas the discourse connecting visual art objects with philosophies regarding the performance document remains under- explored, the article can be read as a benchmark for critical engagement in its attempt to combine performance and visual art-related concerns into two idiosyncratic but not highly disparate forms of creative practice.

Keywords: audience; body; communication; document; liminality; Performance Art; performativity; visual art; witness

This practice-based research aims to explore the relationship between performance art and experimental audiovisual dispositifs. It intends to outline how the performative body creates montages between specific spaces and temporalities, and how these embodied arrangements are activated in order to build  audiovisual artifacts conceived for cinema, video-installation or video-performance, based on “White Cross Black Earth”

From ‘event scores’ that generated concepts for performance to publications financed by performance evenings, Fluxus art has often been characterized by a tension between act and text. This tension may be considered foundational to the group’s production and formation during the 1960s, defining their heterogeneous group identity at the intersection of performed gesture and descriptive text. Less frequently discussed in the context of Fluxus intermediality is the significance of ‘performance documentation’ – the fragmentary images and terse textual descriptions resulting from performed actions. The following essay focuses on one key example of performance documentation to argue that interweaving performance and textual archive was crucial to developing communal identity in Fluxus. In Mieko Shiomi’s 'Spatial Poem' (1965-75), the artist sent instructions to friends asking them to document their gestures and send reports. These reports are marked by their occurrence at specific moments of fictional encounter, and failed efforts at synchronized global action. As participants circulated performance gestures at specific intervals, they produced an event extended in time, multiplied by various instantiations of Shiomi’s instructions, and assembled in the artist’s archive. Through the duration of this performance, participants helped constitute an audience for each other, while performing on behalf of Shiomi in places where she could not be. While Shiomi’s handmade and printed maps of 'Spatial Poem' are often viewed as iconic images of the global range of Fluxus activity, it is rather the evolution of the piece through performance and archiving that most clearly demonstrates the dynamics of Fluxus participation.

Active in Moscow since 1976, the Collective Actions group played a key role in the development of performance art in the Soviet Union. inspired by the work of John Cage, the organizers invited viewer-participants to take part in actions that explored the nature of the aesthetic event and its relationship to other kinds of performative acts. The present volume focuses on the early period of actions, when the experience of spatio-temporal perception was at its most intense and the problem of documentation was just beginning to be considered. This series of audience recollections provides rare insight into individual experiences of actions and explores questions about what can be remembered and conveyed of an essentially psychological event.

This paper considers a set of performance art documents from the late 1960s and early 1970s that use the diary format to record specific sets of habits of everyday life. Alison Knowles, in "The Identical Lunch" (1968-71), and Adrian Piper, in "Concrete Infinity Documentation Piece" (1970), both create performance events that are deliberately uneventful. Using straightforward language, non-emotive snapshot photographs, and simple gestures in their performances allows each performer a space of meditation. Eating the same sandwich everyday, consumed with little theatricality, seems to offer no substantial alteration or novelty that would allow it to count as an ‘event’. Likewise, recording the number of times the performer defecates each day and what quantities of soya lecithin she mixes in her drink each morning seems trivial, even in the context of an avant-garde art scene that prized films featuring young New Yorkers sleeping or chatting on a couch.

If the everyday subject matter of these performances challenges the way we understand these performances as events, it does so in large part because of two important conditions – conditions which are likewise characteristic of the way everyday life was understood in the 1960s. First, they pretend impartiality or anonymity in their styles of documentation. Knowles and Piper both exclude personal pronouns as they describe their actions. Piper’s daily self-portrait photographs likewise show the performer with a minimum of emotion. Both are sensitive to technical or mathematical measures of their actions – the cost of a daily sandwich for Knowles; the weight and temperature of the body for Piper. Second, despite documenting in a manner that suggests the anonymity of the performer (part of a broader effort to democratize aesthetic experience for Knowles and an early exploration of embodied subjectivity for Piper), each of these performances is unique in that it is only visible for the performer herself. Documenting is necessary to help constitute the event of performance. The performer as audience allows for the introduction of new subject matter to the realm of performance art. Both Knowles and Piper present everyday information as characterized by anonymity and invisibility. Each artist also proposes a view of everyday life that, while not explicitly feminist, closely examines women’s labor in particular as a subject of everyday life. This talk considers “Everyday Speech” [1959] by Maurice Blanchot, “Doing-cooking” by Luce Giard (in The Practice of Everyday Life, volume II), and the contemporaneous writings of Georges Perec to investigate the problems of anonymity and invisibility at work in these two art performances and their corresponding documents.

Português (English below): Considerando o potencial de preservação da performance por meio de sua guarda em acervos e de sua reexibição, propomos uma reflexão sobre soluções digitais a partir da aproximação com projetos de notação em dança. Entre eles, citamos o arquivo RePlay, da companhia de Siobhan Davies; a plataforma Motion Bank, mantida pela William Forsythe Foundation; e o TKB - A Transmedia Knowledge Base for Performing Arts, liderado pela Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa. A partir desses exemplos, discutimos as diferenças de objeto a serem ponderadas no possível desenvolvimento de uma iniciativa similar para a documentação de performance.

Abstract: Considering the potential of performance preservation through its collection and reexhibition, we propose a reflection on digital solutions from the approach with projects of notation in dance. Among them, we mention RePlay, the choreographic archive of Siobhan Davies Dance; the Motion Bank platform, maintained by the William Forsythe Foundation; and TKB - A Transmedia Knowledge Base for Performing Arts, led by the Faculty of Science and Technology of the New University of Lisbon. From these examples, we discuss the object differences to be considered in the possible development of a similar initiative for performance documentation.