I am personally curious about archiving/documenting dance/dance history as it relates to the internet. By no means am I a trained archivist.
About a year ago, I thought about interviewing a dance professor of mine. A year later, we secured a date to meet and interview before she retired. I also found out that another professor was retiring, so I asked to interview her as well. The hope would be to publish the interviews (the transcriptions) on my Life as a Modern Dancer Blog, and also possibly publish a small chapbook. If I self-published the chapbook on a site like lulu.com, the book would have an official ISBN number. Other alumni of the department could purchase it to enjoy, as well as I could submit the book to my alma mater's library to "archive" the interview.
Yesterday I conducted the interviews at the University of Utah, with professors Abby Fiat and Donna White. Here on this blog, I want to share the process of the project.
Techwise, I kept it pretty simple. A tech friend suggested that I simply use my iPhone 5 and Voice Memo. It produced a good recording that I could later transcribe. (My past experience using a dictation app was unsuccessful.) Yes, transcribing can be a little tedious, but I am up for the task.
To be doubly sure, I also set up my iPad and used a Voice Memo app to record as my back up. (Yes, technology does fail us sometimes.)
Why audio versus video? Why transcription versus podcast? An interview in print was what I always envisioned.
Stay tuned for the next part of the project.
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