'Interactive/Multimedia E-Books for the Performance Archive'
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Oxford
Department Name: Classics Faculty
Abstract
'Interactive/Multimedia E-books for the Performance Archive' will enable anyone, anywhere in the world and at any time, to access the rich collections of the Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama (APGRD), based at the University of Oxford; and once downloaded, the interactive/multimedia e-book can be accessed in any space, without Internet connection. Illustrated with audio, video and theatrical memorabilia of various kinds, the interactive/multimedia e-books will be based on previous AHRC-funded research conducted by the APGRD team on the history of the ancient plays on the modern stage.
As an internationally renowned centre for the study of the performance history of ancient drama, the APGRD has a unique and very rich collection of materials related to the performance of ancient drama from antiquity to the present. It is essential that its holdings are made more widely available and not simply accessible to those who can visit the Classics Centre in Oxford, as is currently the case. The interactive/multimedia e-books will enable us to work with brand-new technologies - tablet technology as a viewing platform for the e-book, for example, is only 4 years old. Using these cutting edge technologies, the interactive/multimedia e-book will not only expand our audience base; it will also enable us to communicate simultaneously with different types of audience, through the possibility of building different levels and pathways through the interactive/multimedia e-book. We will therefore be able to communicate with much younger audiences as well as extend our dialogue with theatre goers and practitioners around the globe, where the ancient plays enjoy equal prominence within the performance repertoire.
The first of the interactive/multimedia e-books will be on Euripides' Medea, and will draw on and extend the content of the print volume Medea in Performance 1500-2000 (edited by Edith Hall, Fiona Macintosh and Oliver Taplin, Oxford 2000); and the second volume will be focused on Aeschylus' Agamemnon and will be built upon the contents of Agamemnon in Performance: 458 BC to AD 2005 (edited by Fiona Macintosh, Pantelis Michelakis, Edith Hall and Oliver Taplin, Oxford 2005). In multimedia/interactive form, the research contained within the print books will be considerably enhanced both by the use of theatrical ephemera, photographic, audio and video material already housed in the APGRD's collections and by newly commissioned interviews with theatre practitioners and scholars specialising in ancient drama and its afterlife on the stage in the modern world. The aim is ultimately to produce interactive/multimedia e-books to accompany all publications published by researchers at the APGRD (16 have been published to date) and to provide a platform for other projects to produce similar materials.
As an internationally renowned centre for the study of the performance history of ancient drama, the APGRD has a unique and very rich collection of materials related to the performance of ancient drama from antiquity to the present. It is essential that its holdings are made more widely available and not simply accessible to those who can visit the Classics Centre in Oxford, as is currently the case. The interactive/multimedia e-books will enable us to work with brand-new technologies - tablet technology as a viewing platform for the e-book, for example, is only 4 years old. Using these cutting edge technologies, the interactive/multimedia e-book will not only expand our audience base; it will also enable us to communicate simultaneously with different types of audience, through the possibility of building different levels and pathways through the interactive/multimedia e-book. We will therefore be able to communicate with much younger audiences as well as extend our dialogue with theatre goers and practitioners around the globe, where the ancient plays enjoy equal prominence within the performance repertoire.
The first of the interactive/multimedia e-books will be on Euripides' Medea, and will draw on and extend the content of the print volume Medea in Performance 1500-2000 (edited by Edith Hall, Fiona Macintosh and Oliver Taplin, Oxford 2000); and the second volume will be focused on Aeschylus' Agamemnon and will be built upon the contents of Agamemnon in Performance: 458 BC to AD 2005 (edited by Fiona Macintosh, Pantelis Michelakis, Edith Hall and Oliver Taplin, Oxford 2005). In multimedia/interactive form, the research contained within the print books will be considerably enhanced both by the use of theatrical ephemera, photographic, audio and video material already housed in the APGRD's collections and by newly commissioned interviews with theatre practitioners and scholars specialising in ancient drama and its afterlife on the stage in the modern world. The aim is ultimately to produce interactive/multimedia e-books to accompany all publications published by researchers at the APGRD (16 have been published to date) and to provide a platform for other projects to produce similar materials.
Planned Impact
Interactive/multimedia e-book technology will take our collection, our academic expertise and our experience in developing exhibitions to new audiences. It will enable us to provide practitioners, educators and the wider public interested in the culture of ancient Greece and Rome with a resource that describes the history and development of ancient plays in the modern world. That resource has to be digital for reasons of access, it has to be portable for ease of use, and it has to be engaging for a range of audiences. We want to provide theatre-goers, practitioners, and learners of all ages with a way to explore and experience our unique collection of performance history.
While the potential for digital exhibitions via conventional websites has been available for many years, compelling and interactive user experience in the form of an e-book is a new concept. Most websites require a laptop or desktop computer to use them; interactive multimedia e-books offer a new, innovative, convenient and portable way for users to interact directly with digital objects such as images, movies, text, visualisations. Audiences can now engage directly with digital objects, swiping, zooming and navigating the content in ways that permit a more tactile and less alienating interaction - one that simply was not possible 5 years ago without tablet computers and mobile devices.
In addition, because the e-book is downloaded, it does not require an Internet connection to run. This means that devices can be pre-loaded and used in situations where Internet access is unreliable, expensive, or difficult to administer, such as exhibition or performance spaces. Secondly, e-books offer a portable and community-developed content standard, in contrast to mobile applications ('apps'), which are expensive and difficult to maintain. Additionally, e-books can be distributed either via an online store (such as Amazon or the iTunes store), or they can also be downloaded from conventional websites. This allows the APGRD full control over the publication of its digital content, and enables us to make material available via a creative commons license without external restrictions. This will ensure that the e-book can be disseminated as widely as possible to maximize the value and reach of the impact generated.
After the end of the funding period, the e-books will continue to be available via the APGRD's website, via the e-book distributions systems employed (iBooks store, etc.). They will remain there while the current e-books standard is supported, which we estimate to be a period of beyond 5 years.
The digital objects that comprise the e-book, such as XML marked up text, images, video, etc., will be stored as archived digital objects in the Bodleian Library's ORA-Data system. The ORA-Data digital archive will hold a package containing the archive-quality form of the digital object, such as lossless PNG for images and WAV for audio files, the version used in the produced work, as well as metadata held in RDF format.
In addition, long-term archival versions of the e-books, using standard PDF technology, will be used to ensure that future users have access to the text content and images. These will be published on the APGRD website and stored in the ORA-Data system.
The project will also publish a set of best-practice guidelines, and aims to make freely available all of the software and technology developed in creating the e-books under a creative commons license. This is intended to provide other projects with a platform for producing similar materials.
While the potential for digital exhibitions via conventional websites has been available for many years, compelling and interactive user experience in the form of an e-book is a new concept. Most websites require a laptop or desktop computer to use them; interactive multimedia e-books offer a new, innovative, convenient and portable way for users to interact directly with digital objects such as images, movies, text, visualisations. Audiences can now engage directly with digital objects, swiping, zooming and navigating the content in ways that permit a more tactile and less alienating interaction - one that simply was not possible 5 years ago without tablet computers and mobile devices.
In addition, because the e-book is downloaded, it does not require an Internet connection to run. This means that devices can be pre-loaded and used in situations where Internet access is unreliable, expensive, or difficult to administer, such as exhibition or performance spaces. Secondly, e-books offer a portable and community-developed content standard, in contrast to mobile applications ('apps'), which are expensive and difficult to maintain. Additionally, e-books can be distributed either via an online store (such as Amazon or the iTunes store), or they can also be downloaded from conventional websites. This allows the APGRD full control over the publication of its digital content, and enables us to make material available via a creative commons license without external restrictions. This will ensure that the e-book can be disseminated as widely as possible to maximize the value and reach of the impact generated.
After the end of the funding period, the e-books will continue to be available via the APGRD's website, via the e-book distributions systems employed (iBooks store, etc.). They will remain there while the current e-books standard is supported, which we estimate to be a period of beyond 5 years.
The digital objects that comprise the e-book, such as XML marked up text, images, video, etc., will be stored as archived digital objects in the Bodleian Library's ORA-Data system. The ORA-Data digital archive will hold a package containing the archive-quality form of the digital object, such as lossless PNG for images and WAV for audio files, the version used in the produced work, as well as metadata held in RDF format.
In addition, long-term archival versions of the e-books, using standard PDF technology, will be used to ensure that future users have access to the text content and images. These will be published on the APGRD website and stored in the ORA-Data system.
The project will also publish a set of best-practice guidelines, and aims to make freely available all of the software and technology developed in creating the e-books under a creative commons license. This is intended to provide other projects with a platform for producing similar materials.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Fiona Macintosh (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Macintosh, F
(2020)
Agamemnon, a performance history
Macintosh, F
(2020)
Agamemnon, a performance history
Macintosh, F.
(2022)
Agamemnon, a performance history. Endings and Iconography
Macintosh, F.
(2020)
Agamemnon, a performance history: Beginnings and Whose Play?
Macintosh, F.
(2020)
Agamemnon, a performance history: Homecoming and Lyric
Macintosh, F
(2016)
Medea, a performance history
Macintosh, F
(2016)
Medea, a performance history
Macintosh , F.
(2020)
Medea, a performance history: Black Sea and Empire
Macintosh, F.
(2020)
Medea, a performance history: Mind and Performer
Macintosh, F.
(2020)
Medea, a performance history: Witch & Woman
| Title | Audio Interviews |
| Description | For Medea, a performance history there are four audio interviews: (1) with actor Helen McCrory (2) with playwright Marina Carr and actor Olwen Fouere (3) with director Jonathan Kent and (4) with psychiatrist, Christopher Cordess. (1) and (3) are clips from longer podcasts made at APGRD events; (2) and (4) were commissioned especially for the ebook. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2016 |
| Impact | These audio interviews with theatre and medical professionals enable our research to reach different types of audiences - in schools, universities, in the creative industries and amongst the wider public - around the world. The testers found the insights and range of perspectives provided by our audio interviews very exciting. |
| Title | Audio Performances of speeches from plays/letters |
| Description | There are five audio recordings of performances of speeches from plays/readings from letters by actors. 1) Caleb Hughes performs one of Jason's speeches from Tony Harrison's Medea: Sex-War Opera 2) Caleb Hughes reads one of Byron's letters 3) Helen Slaney performs one of Seneca's choral odes from his Medea in both English and Latin 4) Helen Slaney performs lines from one of Medea's speeches in Seneca's Medea in both English and Latin 5) Stephe Harrop performs a speech from Studley's version of Medea |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2016 |
| Impact | The testing group were very happy to listen to the Latin of Seneca's version in performance alongside the pop-up boxes on the screen which display the text in both Latin and English (in a translation by A.J. Boyle). They also very much enjoyed the interactive feature that enables the reader both to listen to a performance and to follow the written English texts simultaneously. |
| Title | Filmed Performance of speeches from Aeschylus' Agamemnon performed in ancient Greek (with English subtitles by Oliver Taplin) and in modern dress |
| Description | The film company, Bare Faced Greek were commissioned by the APGRD to make two short films, one from the beginning of the play, the Watchman's speech, the other from the middle section, Clytemnestra's speech welcoming Agamemnon home. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Impact | As with Medea, a performance history, these two short films are designed to resist the 're-constructionist' mode of performing in ancient Greek. The films are set in contemporary Britain in modern dress. The use of subtitles enables the viewer to hear the ancient Greek text and to follow its meaning - this has proved invaluable to our testers, both those at school and those drawn from the general theatre-going public. |
| Title | Filmed Performance of speeches from Euripides' Medea performed in ancient Greek (with English subtitles) and in modern dress |
| Description | There are two filmed performances of scenes from Euripides' Medea, performed in ancient Greek (with English subtitles by Oliver Taplin) and in modern dress, made by the company, Bare Faced Greek, directed by Helen Eastman. The first is Medea's 'Women of Corinth' speech (played by Marie-Louise Crawley) and the second Medea's 'dilemma speech' (performed by Marie-Louise Crawley), |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2016 |
| Impact | This is the first time that a performance of a Greek tragedy in ancient Greek has been filmed in modern dress by a professional company, with a view to avoiding the 'reconstructionist' approach favoured by most directors. The use of subtitles enables the viewer to hear the ancient Greek text and to follow its meaning - this has proved invaluable to our testers, both those at school and those drawn from the general theatre-going public. |
| Title | Interactive maps/timelines |
| Description | There are three interactive maps in Medea, a performance history, developed by Tom Wrobel (Developer/Curator), which enable 1) the reader to trace the voyage of Jason and the Argonauts to the Black Sea 2) to follow their return to Greece with Medea and the Golden Fleece and 3) to follow Byron's journey in the footsteps of the Argonauts. There is an interactive timeline of ancient versions of Medea, which presents the ancient sources and their contexts clearly and authoritatively. This was developed by Tom Wrobel (Developer/Curator). |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2016 |
| Impact | Both the interactive map and the ancient timeline enable younger readers and non-specialists to quickly become familiar with new material and to do so in exciting and lucid ways. |
| Title | Introductory Film to ibooks version of Medea, a performance history |
| Description | The Introductory film to the ibooks version of the Medea ebook provides a general introduction to the subject and also a step by step guide for the reader/user, which provides audio and visual aids to enhance the reader experience. The narrator is actor, Caleb Hughes; director Stuart Hughes, with creative input from Alison Kahn; script by Claire Kenward. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2016 |
| Impact | The introductory film is the first port of call for all inexperienced ibook readers and was invaluable to our testers, who needed to learn more about the hyperlink facility and the glossary features, as well as the wealth of material available in the appendix. |
| Title | Menu cards for chapters |
| Description | The menu cards for the six chapters were designed by Thomas Cuschieri (Lecturer in Design, University of Hertfordshire). |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2016 |
| Impact | The view of the testers was unanimous that the chapter headings have been considerably enhanced by the illustrations. Cuschieri is designing the Agamemnon, a performance history menu cards as well. |
| Title | Menu cards for the six chapters for Agamemnon, a performance history |
| Description | The menu cards for the six chapters for Agamemnon, a performance history were designed by Thomas Cuschieri (Lecturer in Design, University of Hertfordshire). |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Impact | Again our testers felt that the ebook was considerably enhanced by the original drawings by Cushieri. |
| Title | Video Interviews |
| Description | There are two video interviews in Medea, a performance history: (1) with the theatre scholar and playwright, Olga Taxidou (2) with Professor Nancy Rabinowitz (Hamilton College, USA). |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2016 |
| Impact | Olga Taxidou's video interview describes the role played by the ancient mythological figure, Medea, in her homeland in modern-day Georgia, where the mother who killed her children is treated as local heroine. Taxidou also speaks about her own version of Medea's story that was performed in Tblisi in 1997. Nancy Rabinowitz speaks about the responses to Euripides' play given to her by the male prisoners she works with in a Washington jail. Both these video interviews bring Medea vividly to life for the reader of the ebook and make it abundantly clear why her story continues to resonate within very different communities. Our testers particularly enjoyed these video interviews which were longer than most of the video clips employed elsewhere in the ebook. |
| Title | audio recordings for Agamemnon ebook |
| Description | Two newly commissioned interviews with Oliver Taplin (Oxford) and Joshua Billings (Princeton) respectively for Agamemnon, a performance history. Three clips from previous APGRD podcasts by Wayne Jordan (writer/theatre director); Rory Mullarkey (playwright); Gwyneth Lewis (poet). |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2016 |
| Impact | The two experts on tragedy, ancient and modern, have just completed a Norton edition of the Oresteia. Taplin speaks about his translation and on production matters of Agamemnon; Billings speaks about the role of the chorus in the play. Playwrights Mullarkey and Lewis have both reworked the Oresteia; Wayne Jordan has directed Agamemnon. |
| Description | We have established a set of best-practice guidelines (a toolkit), which is available on the APGRD website on the ebook page, under a creative commons license (http://www.apgrd.ox.ac.uk/about-us/programmes/interactivemultimedia-e-books). This is intended to provide other projects with a platform for producing similar materials. We have discovered that there is a market for interactive/multimedia ebooks both within the educational sector (post 16 and within higher education) and amongst the theatre-going public and we are ahead of the curve in filling it. We have also discovered that digitising our collection and commissioning new artefacts, interviews and performances to enhance our previous print publications is in line with other developments within the publishing industry, where 'repurposing' books for new audiences is very much a priority. |
| Exploitation Route | The toolkit/best practice guidelines that we have developed and is sited on the APGRD website will enable others to develop interactive/multimedia ebooks with ease. We have also been sharing the toolkit/best practice guidelines with students from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln over a six-week period by Skype from October 2018 onwards. Dr Kenward, the APGRD Archivist/Developer, who returned from twelve-months' maternity leave in January 2019, is taking the lead on building the Agamemnon, a performance history volume after having acquired the necessary skills to work in ibooks after twelve months on the project working alongside Dr Tom Wrobel (the project's Developer/Curator). Agamemnon, a performance history has now five complete chapters (drafted by Professor Fiona Macintosh and built and curated by Dr Kenward). Chris Jennings (the project's Media Consultant Developer, from Oxford Brookes) will again convert the ibook to ePub3 format for accessibility reasons. In 2019 the cross-institutional ERC project, LatinNow based at the University of Nottingham and led by a team of international archaeologists, has adopted and implemented the APGRD ebook model to disseminate its research findings to general audiences. In 2020 the APGRD ebook model was also adopted by a group of researchers in the US and UK from the Classics and Social Justice Caucus of the US Society for Classical Studies to develop a series of ebooks, Classics as Pedagogical Tool, a resource that will facilitate discussions and learning about relationships and sexuality with a specific focus on LGBTQ+ issues. |
| Sectors | Creative Economy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Description | The aim of the 'interactive/multimedia ebooks for the performance archive' was to use ebook technology to take the APGRD collection, our academic expertise and our experience in developing exhibitions to new audiences, within the world of theatre, within education and, above all, to learners of all ages. Interactive/multimedia ebooks offer a new, innovative, convenient and portable way for users to interact directly with digital objects such as images, movies, text, visualisations. Our ebooks work without internet connection and are all freely downloadable. The ebooks will be available across two different platforms, with both an epub3 version and an ibook version. This ensures that the ebooks are available to all, regardless of the type of device a user prefers to view them on. In addition to allowing us to address broader accessibility issues, the epub3 version enables us to create a product suitable for dyslexic and visually impaired users. This will ensure that the ebooks can be disseminated as widely as possible to maximize the value and reach of the impact generated. Our testers have been drawn from the creative industries, from education and from the wider public. The feedback has not only been invaluable in the final editorial stages, it has also been enormously encouraging. I list below a few, representative comments from our sample (designating in broad terms the occupation of the tester): a) 'I am absolutely not an academic and have only a glancing acquaintance with the Medea story but after I finished the ebook I felt as though I knew it really well and felt quite emotionally invested in her if that makes sense! ' (Resident of Bangladesh - theatre-goer) b) 'I think it is beautifully put together, incredibly engaging, visually stunning, and very interactive! It will appeal to a wide-range of people and ages, which is exactly what you are looking for.' (Schools Liaison Officer, University of Oxford) c) 'I've just spent a very enjoyable morning with your ebook. What a fantastic end result - I love it! Really looking forward to being able to share it with my students when the final version is out.' (Open University Lecturer, Classics) d) 'Wow! This is a fantastic. You've all done something quite brilliant here. So rich, so accessible and so interesting. Great use of media. What an exceptional book! Love it.' (Film Maker/Writer, London) e) 'I really enjoyed reading this book even though I do not study classics or latin. I thought it gave an interesting insight into the different opinions and interpretations of the story in literature and drama and how the story has been interpreted throughout history, and found the interactive features, such as the videos and pictures, fun to use and engaging. This book seems perfect for those studying classics/latin and the story of medea. The quotes, audio and videos, artwork and insight into the different dramatical and literary interpretations gives you a whole new perspective on the classic story and make it very memorable.' (GCSE Student). From October 2018 members of the APGRD team have spent 6 sessions with students from Classics and Religious Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, working via Skype on developing interactive-mulitimedia ebooks for the performance archive, for which the students will produce their own ebook based on an ancient play of their own choice. There have been four sessions with Dr Marchella Ward (Maternity-cover, fixed term APGRD Archivist-Researcher), with Professor Fiona Macintosh, in which Medea in performance and the performance archive has been discussed as well as preliminary discussion about writing for the students' own ebook on Sophocles' Antigone; one with Dr Claire Kenward (APGRD Archivist-Researcher, currently on maternity leave, who co-curated Medea, a performance history and is currently building Agamemnon, a performance history), who will share the technical and artistic skills she has learned in co-curating two interactive-multimedia ebooks; and one with Dr Tom Wrobel (former APGRD Data Developer, co-curator Medea, a performance history, author of the Interactive-multimedia Toolkit, currently with the Bodleian Digital Services, University of Oxford) on the differences between curating ebooks in iBooks Author and epub3 versions. Following feedback in 2019, we have decided to release the ebooks in sections as well as in full book size. This enables readers speedier downloads and also reduces the storage of file sizes on devices, even though it reduces some interactivity (across chapters). |
| First Year Of Impact | 2016 |
| Sector | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Policy & public services |
| Description | Repurposing the academic book for new audiences |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Description | Shaping publishing policy |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| URL | http://www.apgrd.ox.ac.uk |
| Title | Toolkit for Interactive/Multimedia Ebooks |
| Description | The toolkit consists of a best-practice guide for interactive/multimedia ebook development. It includes a series of papers, in four broad areas: 1) ebook formats, and their creation and distribution 2) the software available, its benefits and drawbacks 3) the creation and management of digital objects: file formats, modifications, etc. 4) the editorial workflow involved in ebook production, and the best way to manage it |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2016 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The toolkit is available on the ebook page of the APGRD website ( http://www.apgrd.ox.ac.uk/about-us/programmes/interactivemultimedia-e-books) and is intended to provide other projects with a platform for producing similar materials. |
| URL | http://apgrd.ox.ac.uk/ebook |
| Description | APGRD ebook project/Bare Faced Greek |
| Organisation | Bare Faced Greek |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | The APGRD ebook editorial team discussed with the film company's Artistic Director, Helen Eastman, the speeches we wished them to film in ancient Greek for each of the APGRD ebooks. We then supplied the translations and oversaw the subtitling, in both cases drawing on translations by Oliver Taplin, one of the APGRD Advisory Board members. |
| Collaborator Contribution | We were the first people to commission Bare Faced Greek to produce four short films and they have been able, through the ebook, to attract further their commissions. The APGRD ebook has enabled people with no knowledge or experience of ancient Greek to hear the language and to see how its sound contributes significantly to its meaning. This was the overwhelming response of our testers and our users. |
| Impact | Four short films in ancient Greek and with English subtitles (by Oliver Taplin) from Euripides' Medea and Aeschylus' Agamemnon have resulted from this collaboration. |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | APGRD ebook project/Oxford Brookes |
| Organisation | Oxford Brookes University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The text for both volumes has been written by Professor Fiona Macintosh (PI and author and editor of the original print publications upon which the interactive/multimedia ebooks have been built) and Dr Claire Kenward (APGRD Archivist/Researcher) and the ibooks version of Medea, a performance history was built by Dr Tom Wrobel (Curator/Developer), who liaised with Chris Jennings, Senior Lecturer in Digital Publishing at Oxford Brookes University, who served as Media Consultant Developer and who is building both epub.3 versions of Medea, a performance history and Agamemnon, a performance history. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Chris Jennings, Senior Lecturer in Digital Publishing at Oxford Brookes University, has been a Media Consultant Developer on the project and has built the epub.3 versions of both Medea, a performance history and Agamemnon, a performance history. Alison Kahn (Film Studies Department), who has previous experience developing ebooks at the Pitt Rivers Museum, acted as Media Consultant Director, providing particular guidance on accessibility. |
| Impact | Medea, a performance history - epub.3 version Agamemnon, a performance history - epub.3 version |
| Start Year | 2015 |
| Description | APGRD ebook project/Oxford University Press |
| Organisation | Oxford University Press |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Since our print publications are published by Oxford University Press and since we are 'repurposing' the first two of our edited volumes (Medea in Performance 1500-2000 (2000) and Agamemnon in Performance 458BC to AD2005 (2005) respectively), and since this project is broadly in line with OUP's broader digital publishing initiatives within their educational list, we have kept the Classics team at OUP informed of the project since its inception and during the course of its development and production. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Oxford University Press' Classics team is very impressed with the outputs and has kindly agreed to assist us in the marketing of the ebooks. |
| Impact | Medea, a performance history (available in two editions, ibooks for readers using Macs; and epub.3 edition for all other devices) Agamemnon, a performance history (available in two editions, ibooks for readings using Macs; and epub.3 edition for all other devices) |
| Start Year | 2015 |
| Description | APGRD ebook project/University of Hertfordshire |
| Organisation | University of Hertfordshire |
| Department | School of Creative Arts |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Professor Fiona Macintosh, Dr Tom Wrobel and Dr Claire Kenward discussed the chapter contents and early design ideas for the menu cards attached to each chapter of the APGRD's interactive/multimedia ebooks and selected artefacts from the APGRD collections to act as stimuli for the illustrator, Dr Thomas Cuschieri. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The illustrator/animator, Dr Thomas Cuschieri, Lecturer in Design at the University of Hertfordshire produced the menu cards for each of the chapters for the APGRD's interactive/multimedia ebooks. |
| Impact | The menu cards for each chapter were newly commissioned for this project and are thus amongst the creative outputs that exist both as separate art works and also as part of the interactive/multimedia ebooks. |
| Start Year | 2015 |
| Description | Collaboration with the Department of Classics and Religious Studies, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, USA/Pepsi Cola |
| Organisation | PepsiCo |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | The APGRD has worked for a six-month period from October 2018-March 2019 with up to 10 of Dr Mike Lippman's students from Classics at Nebraska (funded by Pepsi Cola, who will pay towards the costs for contributions from Dr Kenward and Dr Wrobel) on training the students so they can develop an interactive/multimedia e-book on an ancient play of their own choice, in the first instance, Sophocles' Antigone. The sessions have taken place on Skype and have been led by: Professor Fiona Macintosh, Dr Marchella Ward (temporary APGRD Archivist/Researcher - four one-hour sessions on Medea and the archive); Dr Claire Kenward (APGRD Archivist-Researcher, co-curator Medea, a performance history and builder of Agamemnon, a performance history - will deliver on 13 March 2019 a one hour-long session on writing and designing an interactive multimedia ebook); Dr Tom Wrobel (formerly APGRD Data Developer, technical curator of Medea, a performance history) - delivered a one hour-long session on 13 February 2019 on building ebooks in iBooks Author and in Epub 3. This summer the APGRD will host both Dr Lippmann, Dr Matthew Loar (University Nebraska-Lincoln), together with 6 of their students who will search for material in our archive to feature in their ebook. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Our partners at the University of Nebraska are keen for their students to learn about the performance archive in Oxford and to learn from our Toolkit and from person-to-person skill training about how to create their own interactive multi-media ebooks for the performance archive. Since skill sharing was one of our initial aims, we are delighted to have forged this partnership. Furthermore, since the Classics Department at Nebraska-Lincoln hosts the online e-journal, Didaskalia, they have also now provided page devoted to our ebooks and an official link to our website for downloads. |
| Impact | This is a multidisciplinary collaboration - involving Classicists, technical team members and Archivists. |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | Collaboration with the Department of Classics and Religious Studies, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, USA/Pepsi Cola |
| Organisation | University of Nebraska-Lincoln |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The APGRD has worked for a six-month period from October 2018-March 2019 with up to 10 of Dr Mike Lippman's students from Classics at Nebraska (funded by Pepsi Cola, who will pay towards the costs for contributions from Dr Kenward and Dr Wrobel) on training the students so they can develop an interactive/multimedia e-book on an ancient play of their own choice, in the first instance, Sophocles' Antigone. The sessions have taken place on Skype and have been led by: Professor Fiona Macintosh, Dr Marchella Ward (temporary APGRD Archivist/Researcher - four one-hour sessions on Medea and the archive); Dr Claire Kenward (APGRD Archivist-Researcher, co-curator Medea, a performance history and builder of Agamemnon, a performance history - will deliver on 13 March 2019 a one hour-long session on writing and designing an interactive multimedia ebook); Dr Tom Wrobel (formerly APGRD Data Developer, technical curator of Medea, a performance history) - delivered a one hour-long session on 13 February 2019 on building ebooks in iBooks Author and in Epub 3. This summer the APGRD will host both Dr Lippmann, Dr Matthew Loar (University Nebraska-Lincoln), together with 6 of their students who will search for material in our archive to feature in their ebook. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Our partners at the University of Nebraska are keen for their students to learn about the performance archive in Oxford and to learn from our Toolkit and from person-to-person skill training about how to create their own interactive multi-media ebooks for the performance archive. Since skill sharing was one of our initial aims, we are delighted to have forged this partnership. Furthermore, since the Classics Department at Nebraska-Lincoln hosts the online e-journal, Didaskalia, they have also now provided page devoted to our ebooks and an official link to our website for downloads. |
| Impact | This is a multidisciplinary collaboration - involving Classicists, technical team members and Archivists. |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | Article for ARC Magazine, the monthly magazine for members of the Archives and Records Association, special issue edited by the National Theatre Archive. Title: 'Interactive ebooks for the performance archive'. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | We were invited to write this article about the interactive ebooks by the guest editor of ARC Magazine, the National Theatre Archivist. ARC is the monthly magazine for members of the Archives and Records Association. The piece explains how the ebooks can extend the reach of an archive by providing open access comment and analysis about digitised objects in a collection. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Invitation to join Presidential Panel, Society for Classical Studies (SCS) of North America Annual Meeting in Toronto, January 2017, on digital publishing |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The theme of the Presidential Panel this year was digital publishing and I was invited to speak about the APGRD's interactive/multimedia ebooks, alongside colleagues from NYU's Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, the University of California Press and the Executive Director of the Society. I was able to show sample material from chapters from the Agamemnon, a performance history as well as from the already published Medea, a performance history. The APGRD ebooks were especially commended for reaching new audiences beyond the academy and this was held up as a model for good practice. The event was podcast by the SCS and is available on their website. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |