5.4 The Instrument or Object in Performance and Cultural Life

The material form becomes fully intelligible when people use, play with, wear, carry, position, activate, or care for it. This subsection, therefore asks what the object does in practice. It does not repeat the Performance Account from Section 4. A Performance Account describes what happened on one occasion; the Instrument or Object Account explains the customary techniques, meanings, permissions and relationships through which the object can appear across occasions.

Learn through practitioner-led demonstration

Where appropriate and permitted, invite a practitioner to demonstrate how the object is prepared and used. For an instrument, this may include how it is held, suspended or placed; how sound is produced; how it is tuned; and how basic strokes, finger positions, breath techniques, damping, bowing or other actions are named. For a costume, mask, puppet or prop, it may include how it is assembled, worn, carried, manipulated, revealed, concealed or stored before and after use.

A demonstration should be led by the person who knows the practice. Ask for local terms and meaningful contrasts - for example, two strokes, two tunings or two ways of wearing an item. Identify a separate demonstration of this kind rather than presenting it as part of a live Performance.

Observe the body and object together

An object may shape posture, movement and role. Notice whether it is held, worn, suspended, carried, placed, balanced or passed between people, and ask why that position is used. A technique or costume element may only make sense in relation to the performer’s body.

Do not document the object only as an isolated studio image if its use depends on bodily action. At the same time, do not ask a practitioner to perform a restricted or strenuous action simply to complete the record. Where a full demonstration is not possible, a verbal explanation, a safe partial demonstration, or reference to an existing Performance recording may provide the necessary context.

Describe sound, movement and appearance in practitioners’ terms

For musical instruments, ask how practitioners recognise the sound: deep, sharp, resonant, carrying, signalling, soothing, commanding, or through another locally meaningful description. Ask what role the instrument plays in an ensemble or event - pulse, lead, drone, cue, response, accompaniment, signal or another function - and how it relates to other instruments. The interview schedule encourages description of sound through practitioners’ own comparisons rather than relying only on technical vocabulary.

For masks, costumes, puppets, props and ritual objects, ask what changes when the object appears. Does it identify a character, alter the performer’s role, permit a particular movement, make an action visible, mark authority, attract attention, conceal identity or carry ritual force? Record the explanation given by the people who use or interpret it. Avoid turning symbolic meaning into an unsupported fieldworker interpretation.

Ask how use changes across occasions and places

The same object may be used differently across occasions and places. Ask whether tuning, handling, costume arrangement, movement or placement changes between celebratory, funerary, ritual, staged or pedagogical contexts, and whether space changes sound or use.

Learn who has the right to make, use, touch or display it

Cultural rules are part of the object account. Ask who may make, own, safeguard, play, wear, carry, touch, repair or dispose of the object, and how those rights are learned or granted. They may be inherited, taught, attached to a ritual role, governed by a community body or open to anyone. Restrictions may concern person, gender, community, place, season, ritual state or time of day. Record them in the terms used by the people concerned and at the level of detail they are willing to make available.

Keep cultural authority separate from the documentation team’s permission. A community rule may govern who may play an instrument, while a separate consent decision governs whether the fieldworker may photograph it. An object may be visible in public but not available for close handling or online circulation. The archive needs both kinds of information because physical access does not automatically imply permission to reproduce or disseminate.

Follow relationships to Art Form, Artist, Performance and Space

An Instrument or Object Account derives its meaning from links. Connect it to associated Art Forms, Artists, makers or custodians, Performance records in which this object appears, and Spaces to which it is connected. Structural links show the object in action without duplicating descriptions.

Record contemporary change and concern without assuming decline

Ask what has changed in materials, making, use, sound, access, teaching or recognition. Natural materials may be harder to obtain; synthetic substitutes may be preferred or contested; amplification may alter how an instrument is played; stage presentation may change the use of costumes or objects; younger practitioners may learn different techniques. The interview schedule also asks what people hope for the tradition’s future. Record practitioners’ assessment of change rather than assuming that older always means better or that every adaptation represents loss.