The past through the future: a hypermedia model for handling the information stored in the audio memories

The use of hypertextual structures has become very popular in humanities electronic critical editions. It provides a way of making connections between pieces of information, thus modelling what many humanities scholars actually do. Because hypertext has been popu- larized by the World Wide Web more than anything else, the linking mechanisms are fairly weak. Actually, there are two main open issues: the encoding models used lack separation between structure and content; and in recent years a strong request to handle various media (text, images, audio and video) has emerged. Thus, it is now time to take one step further: in this paper, we describe PSYCHO-MAD, a Powerful SYstem with Charming Hypermedia Objects for Music Audio Documents, a not-hierarchical hypermedia model for handling the information stored in the audio memories based on an extension of zz-structures. The cooperation activities of different classes of actors allow the user to create new virtual hyperdocuments and dynamic views (useful, for example, in performance of electro-acoustic music open work or in ethno music events). By adopting Vannevar Bush’s point of view, the model herein elaborated connects, without preconceived limitations, documents stored in different media: annotations made by the author, scores, room programs, critical reviews, setting photos, sound recordings and video shootings.