PROGRAME, PROIECTE

The ethnoArc Project
Linked European Archives for Ethnomusicological Research

An European Research Project in the 6th Framework Programme:
Information Society Technologies - Access to and Preservation of Cultural and Scientific Resources (since 2006)
EthnoArc aims to improve access to the wealth of Europe's ethno-musical cultural heritage. The goal of the ethnoArc project (that was initially started in 2005 under the title From Wax Cylinder to Digital Storage with funding from the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation and the Federal Ministry for Education and Research of Germany) is to contribute to the preservation, accessibility, connectedness and exploitation of some of the most prestigious ethnomusicological archives in Europe (Bucharest, Budapest, Berlin, and Geneva), by providing a linked archive for field collections from different sources, thus enabling access to cultural content for various application and research purposes. Each of these institutions is unique and is shaped by its own context and history (emphases of holdings, structures of recording, state of preservation, information management tools, etc.). Today, if digital at all, they apply different technical formats, software architectures and metadata structures, making comparisons of content almost impossible.
The system will be designed to conduct multi-archive searches and to compare retrieved data. In a two–year effort, ethnoArc will attempt to create an "archetype" of a linked archive comprising the joint development of a common internet portal for distributed field collections from different sources, enabling access to resources for various application and research purposes. Creating the linked archive poses a substantial challenge not only to software development, but also to ethnomusicology and archive science: various systems of order in various languages have to be coordinated for correspondences and common categories, to enable automated "translation" - mapping - of rich metadata from one database to the other. In the course of implementation, the archives will also be supported in their efforts to digitalise and catalogue their materials.
It is hoped that ethnoArc and its results - improved accessibility to folk music sources - will make the public more aware of this cultural heritage, allowing researchers as well as artists and cultural workers to use and accentuate it better. It will spur modern, comprehensive and comparative research in ethnomusicology, anthropology and disciplines, and will deepen and spread awareness of the common European memory and identity.
The European Union will finance the project for two years, starting in September 2006. The project includes an international network of seven partners from four different countries:
Four sound archives:
  • Constantin Brailoiu Institute for Ethnography and Folklore, Bucharest
  • Ethnomusicological Department of the Ethnological Museum Berlin (Phonogramm Archiv)
  • Institute for Musicology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest
  • Archives Internationales de Musique Populaire, Geneva
Two multidisciplinary research institutions:
  • Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (Coordinator)
  • New Europe College, Bucharest
A technology developer:
  • FOKUS Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems, Berlin