6.5 From Documentation to a Space Account
A Space Account brings names, location, physical description, memory, performance use, authority, access, change and documentation media into one coherent record. It should allow a reader who was not present in the field to understand what this place is, why it matters, whose knowledge shaped the description, how performance relates to it, and what could or could not be documented. The Space entity remains connected to Art Form, Performance, Artist and Instrument or Object rather than becoming an isolated location field.1
Bring the evidence together
Keep together the preferred and alternative names, administrative location, locally meaningful directions, field notes, photographs, route or layout annotations, conversations with knowledge holders, access decisions, and links to related entity records. The proposed workflow treats material and spatial photographs, field notes, contextual description, bilingual metadata, rights information and paradata as connected parts of documentation.3
Record the circumstances under which the Space was documented. Was it observed during an actual Performance, visited separately, described from memory, photographed when empty, or documented through a combination of these? Were parts inaccessible or not recordable? Did weather, construction, crowds or a temporary stage alter what could be seen? Paradata helps later users understand why the record looks the way it does rather than assuming that the documentation is a complete view of the site.3
Write from the place outward
Begin the account with the preferred local name and other names where relevant. Locate the place in administrative terms and through locally meaningful landmarks at the level of detail that can be shared. State what kind of Space participants understand it to be and when it becomes significant. Then describe the physical form that matters to performance: surface, size, layout, orientation, route, entrances, audience arrangement, acoustics and the placement of important objects.
Move from physical description into cultural relationships. Who is responsible for the space? What occasions bring it into use? What boundaries or entry rules matter? What memories and earlier uses are associated with it? How has the place changed? What current conditions concern or support practitioners? The account should make clear where these explanations came from rather than presenting every statement as anonymous fact.
Describe this Space, not merely the Performance that happened there
Section 4 records how one particular event used the location: where performers stood, what route they followed, how the audience gathered and what happened on that occasion. Section 6 should not repeat that entire event description. Instead, it should explain the place across occasions: what it is called, how it is organised, what forms of use it supports, what restrictions govern it and what histories people associate with it. Link the relevant Performance record for event-specific detail.
The same principle applies to Art Form, Artist and Instrument or Object: link the relevant records without duplicating their full accounts. A relational archive gains depth through connections, not repetition.
Make the basis of each statement visible
Separate observation, participant explanation and fieldworker inference. “The ground is paved concrete” may be an observation. “The paving changed the dancers’ footing” should be attributed if it comes from a practitioner. “This inner line is a ritual boundary” should identify the person or group that explained it, especially where the boundary is not visible. If people disagree about the history, use or authority of the space, preserve the difference.
Retain local place names, orientation terms and spatial vocabulary where translation would remove an important distinction. Bilingual description should be reviewed for meaning, not created by mechanically translating an English account. The person who wrote or edited the Space Account should be identifiable separately from the people whose knowledge it represents.
Keep media and relationships connected
Photographs should remain linked to the description they support. A route image should identify the part of the route shown; an overall photograph should indicate the direction of view where useful; an image of a changed surface should be connected to the relevant field note or participant explanation. Where no image could be made, state the restriction rather than leaving later users to guess why a feature is absent.
Keep the Space record connected to the Performance records hosted there and to the Art Form, Artist and Instrument or Object records that explain its wider cultural relationships. The entity framework is designed precisely so that space, event, people, practice and material culture can be followed without collapsing them into one undifferentiated record.1
Return the account for review
Before finalising the account, return the main description and relevant access decisions to the artists, knowledge holders, custodians or other people agreed during fieldwork. Ask them to check names, spelling, locally meaningful directions, histories, boundaries, descriptions of use, changes, photographs, captions and the wording of restricted material. Participant review should correct avoidable errors and prevent unwanted disclosure; it should not force everyone to agree on one interpretation.
Review access as well as accuracy. Confirm what may be public, what should remain as metadata only, what is community-only or restricted, and whether exact names, coordinates, route details or images require special conditions. Where different parts of the documentation have different restrictions, preserve those differences rather than treating the entire Space record as uniformly open or closed.5
Keep the Space Account revisable
A Space Account records how a place was understood and documented at a particular time. Roads may change, stages may be rebuilt, open ground may expand or shrink, ritual routes may be altered, custodianship may change and new uses may emerge. Future documentation should be able to add another observation or update while preserving the earlier record. Revision should make change visible rather than silently overwriting the past.
Before completing the account, ask:
- Have we identified the place through the names people actually use, including relevant alternatives?
- Have we distinguished administrative location from locally meaningful landmarks and directions?
- Have we made clear what counts as this Space - fixed site, route, temporary ground or culturally defined area?
- Have we documented the physical features that actually shape performance, including ground, orientation, movement, audience arrangement and acoustics?
- Have we identified who cares for, governs or authorises use of the place without assuming that one person holds all forms of authority?
- Have we recorded boundaries, thresholds and access rules at the level of detail participants are willing to share?
- Have memories and historical claims been attributed, and have differing accounts or uncertainties been preserved?
- Have we documented change and current conditions through participants’ perspectives rather than assuming decline?
- Are photographs, field notes and spatial annotations connected to the account, with gaps and restrictions explained?
- Are the links to Art Form, Artist, Performance and Instrument or Object records correct, and have names, descriptions and access decisions been reviewed?
If these questions have been addressed, the fieldworker has moved beyond recording where a performance happened. The result is a contextual, traceable and reviewable Space Account: one that shows how a place is made meaningful through use, memory, movement, sound, authority and change while respecting the limits placed on what may be documented or shared.