Telling Tales With Technology

CATHY COURTNEY

On Artist Lives Project

Throughout her time interviewing and researching for the National Sound Archive the speaker had been struck by the difference between the concerns of makers and those of academics. Despite lack of funding and sponsorship, the N.S.A. employs eight researchers and interviews can be anything from three to twenty three hours long and are not edited. Those using the archive are only provided with transcriptions as secondary to the primary source of the tapes. All interviewees have the option of keeping there recordings private for a number of years. Cathy Courtney considers that one of the greatest values of these audio tapes is that the makers have to translate their works into words, sometimes for the first time. The issue of the analysis and interpretation of the recordings was raised and Courtney said she thought the more interpretations there were, the better, since this prevented the danger of their being just one, and therefore seemingly authoritative interpretation, being used in place of the primary source.