We recently received an email requesting advice on how to make a users manual for the re-enactment of a historical artwork.
here are a few notes:
We have a few academic papers:
this is from before we made the user manual for horror film 1:
This is more recent and explicitly discusses the HF1 user manual (briefly)
recent blog post about the HF1 manual
you can also see our 2009 user manual for (wo)Man With Mirror
louise’s phd thesis (see chapter 4 on user manuals)
https://researchoutput.csu.edu.au/en/publications/tending-the-archive-how-re-use-of-ephemeral-artworks-contributes-
some key ideas:
- building trust through socialising with the artist
- oral history interviews
- explicit learning about choreography and technical things
- research on / with the artist in archives if available
- trying out the re-enactment for ourselves
- checking back with the artist to fill in gaps
- writing a manual FOR OURSELVES so we remember what we did (make it easier next time)
- writing a manual with the view to pass it on to someone else (technical stuff, contextual stuff, and stuff about the ‘spirit of the work’
- trying the draft manual out with someone else
- noting what needs changing based on that
- make the changes that need to be made
- when another person tries it out, documenting their attempt and including it in the next iteration of the user manual
etc (ad infinitum, never finished…)
Louise adds:
I used the insights Lucas and I have gained to work with an Australian artist to do something just like you’re planning – to make a manual herself. I wrote a blog post about that:
https://nga.gov.au/stories-ideas/manual-making-for-ephemeral-art/
I think the keys are:
- you need to observe yourself making the work and keep notes about that. That’s what becomes the manual.
- You need to try to be ‘true’ to the work, that’s your job.
- You need to find your way to capture your observations that make sense to you as a record of that experience.
- As Lucas says ‘writing a manual FOR OURSELVES so we remember what we did (make it easier next time)’.
- For me, the letter (or some communication) to a future user from the original artist is crucial, a key finding in my PhD is that without that permission, people feel awkward to just go ahead and use the manual.
- We’re still working on a way to really make it do the ‘ad infinitum’ bit, ie to get users to make a contribution back to the manual, that’s what really strengthens it.