ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses upon four different and contrasting artistic engagements—Uncle Roy All Around You, Rider Spoke, Tate Modern was Musée de la Danse? and Carolan Guitar—the authors documented as ethnographers. In each case, the documentary challenges are distinct, presenting unique methodological problems and resulting in different documentary outcomes. The Carolan Guitar is designed by members of the Mixed Reality Laboratory at the University of Nottingham as a cultural probe. For each of the engagements, the chapter examines the part played by ethnography in assembling a record, the kinds of documents produced, and how the ethnographic documentation of the performances reflected the specific challenges posed by capturing an adequate record. It also briefly outlines how the specific ethnographic approach adopted provided for particular kinds of insights that could be used in turn to inform future new media art design and documentation.
