UCLA Department of Ethnomusicology

Introduction

Audiovisual archives played a key role in the establishment of Ethnomusicology, in the formation of theory and method in the field, and its development over the decades. The recordings deposited in these archives can also play important roles in community self- determination, the preservation of cultural heritage, and both the revival of older traditions and the creation of new ones.  Individuals and communities around the world are making new recordings with little thought about how they can be organized, preserved, and used in the future.  It is important both to bring archival issues to the attention of researchers and to train professionals who are able to work productively in audiovisual archives. This course provides the documents and information to turn disorganized collections into activist repositories filled with the joy of discovery and creation.

Audiovisual Archiving in the 21st Century will address the history, present state, and future of audiovisual archives. In 10 weekly meetings, featuring guest lectures and media, the course will deal with central issues of acquisition, ethics, copyright, contracts, fieldwork, preservation, and access, as well as with nuts-and-bolts issues of technology, space, budgets, and staffing. For their final project students will write a paper that outlines the design and operation of an archive of their own devising. In this way students will have an opportunity to integrate the readings, class discussions, field trips, and their personal and professional interests into the single archives project. The material and approach of the course should be useful to all ethnomusicologists, musicologists, archivists, librarians, and those are considering careers in the fields of cultural heritage, applied ethnomusicology, and archives.

Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites for this course, but familiarity with some musical tradition and ethnomusicology is expected. This course is open to both graduate students and undergraduate students.

Readings and Course Procedures
The instructors have prepared a Course Reader, which may be obtained at Course Reader Material, 1141 Westwood Blvd. In addition to those in the reader, many readings are available online: URLs are provided in the syllabus. A Manual of Sound Archive Administration, by Alan Ward, Archives for the Future, Global Perspectives on Audiovisual Archives in the 20th Century, edited by Anthony Seeger and Shubha Chaudhuri, and A Manual for Documentation, Fieldwork, and Preservation for Ethnomusicologists are on reserve in the Music Library.  Several important resources are available for free on the Internet, including the Seeger & Chaudhuri work and an important resource, Sound Directions, at http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/projects/sounddirections/papersPresent/index.shtml The most important thing about the readings is to finish them before the class in which they will be discussed.

Students are expected to attend all classes with the reading for the week completed and their reading notes ready to turn in, to participate actively in discussions and exercises, to join the class tours, and to attend all visiting lectures. These events will all take place within the regular class time. Part of every class will be devoted to discussing the specific topic for the week.  In most weeks a visiting lecturer will contribute his or her ideas about archiving for discussion in the other hour. The presentations of the visiting lecturers will be open to the public, but students should feel free to ask questions during their presentations.

Because this is a unique course, involving the collaboration of two instructors and a number of visiting lecturers, the instructors may decide to videotape some sessions. Students are requested to give their permission for this, so that the course may be archived, and some of its materials used for educational purposes. Every participant in the course—students, auditors, lecturers, and instructors—will be asked to sign a release granting the Department of Ethnomusicology permission to use the videotapes for archiving and archival training.

Course Paper or Project
The final project is for each student to design an audiovisual archive of some kind. You can choose the specific nature of the archive.  Using the information you have gleaned from readings, discussions, and your own research you should describe how your archive will deal with the topics in the course—among them technology, storage, acquisition, rights, dissemination, etc.  The paper will be further described in class and in a separate handout.  If students prefer to do another kind of final project or paper, they should consult the instructors early in the course.

Students should discuss possible topics for their final paper or project with the instructors before the end of the fourth week. Generally speaking, graduate students are expected to write 20-25 page final papers while undergraduates are expected to write 10-12 page papers. Students are encouraged to seek out the instructors early, even though they will not have all of the information in hand for the paper until later in the course. The final papers are due on or before March 19 at 4:00 PM. They should be turned in at the Ethnomusicology Archive. Any student encountering difficulties turning in an assignment on time should consult the instructors as soon as possible, to avoid being penalized for a late paper.

Reading Journal
Students are required to keep a written journal on important course readings and to send this journal to the instructors each week.  This will facilitate discussion and also the preparation of your final projects. The entry should include (1) the complete reference for the work and (if a website) the date you consulted it. Then (2) summarize what the reading is about and give the two or three of its most important points. You can note page numbers if you like, for future reference. Then (3) make your own comment on the reading—whether you found it useful, whether it contradicts or agrees with another reading, etc.  Finally rank it by stars (like a film critic) where one star (*) means not very useful and five stars (*****) means fantastically good and essential reading (an exception: if you are reviewing something written by one of the course instructors, give it no stars at all).  In most cases this should require less than 150 words per entry. These journals should be made as computer files and e-mailed to both instructors midnight Monday before the class.  Undergraduates will be required to submit two per week on the required reading; graduate students should write three—two on required readings (the double asterisk readings) and one describing one of the supplementary readings.  We will distribute the “star rating” of the readings to all students.

In the syllabus, readings marked with two asterisks (**) are a required. Those with one asterisk are usually supplementary websites.

The difference between C100 and C200 level participation

Students registering for the C100 course are expected to read at least the two required articles marked with a double asterisk (**) in the weekly lists, to participate in all classroom activities, to keep a reading journal of at least one paragraph per article read, and to write a final project of between 10 and 12 pages.

Students registering for the C200 course are expected to read at least all the required readings, to participate in all classroom activities, to keep a reading journal of at least three items per week, and to write a final project of between 20 and 25 pages (2,400 – 3,200 words).

Grading

Attendance in class, participation in discussions, and active involvement in the various activities related to the course is worth 40% of the final grade. Reading Journals are worth 20 % of the grade. The final paper grade is worth 40% of the final grade.  Since the class meets only once a week, students with more than one unexcused absence will be penalized.  Any student who will be unavoidably late for a class or unable to attend a class should notify the instructors in advance.

About Original Work

Any course in which students are asked to do original work outside the classroom can be abused through inappropriate collaboration and plagiarism. In this seminar, students are encouraged to consult as many outside sources as possible, and to talk among themselves.  The final paper should be a student’s own original work.  Contributions to the paper (bibliographic, personal contact, etc.) must be indicated through references to publications, other written or electronic sources, and personal communications. The purpose of reading, thinking, and writing is to learn for yourself the rest of your life and plagiarism is a serious offense. University regulations require that any case of plagiarism he sent to the Dean of Students for review. If you have any questions about documentation, quotations, and related matters, please consult one of the instructors before submitting your work.

Changes in Course Outline
Seminars often have a fairly large degree of flexibility, and some changes may be made in specific reading assignments and other activities during the course of the quarter for a variety of reasons.

About the Instructors

Anthony Seeger holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Chicago, and is professor of ethnomusicology at UCLA. He is also Director of the UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive. He has spent years making recordings in Brazil, and has served as Director of the Indiana University Archives of Traditional Music (1982-1988) and as Curator of the Folkways Collection and Director of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings at the Smithsonian Institution (1988-2000), where he is Curator Emeritus. Professor Seeger's CV is available here: http://www.ethnomusic.ucla.edu/people/seegercv.htm

Aaron Bittel is the Archivist-Librarian for the UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive.  He holds an M.A. in Ethnomusicology from UCLA and an M.S. in Library and Information Science from Syracuse University.  As an ethnomusicologist he has documented musical practices in the Los Angeles area in both audio and video.  As a librarian and archivist he has worked for the Belfer Audio Archive, Syracuse University Library, and the American Folklife Center.  He has also been an elementary school band director.