Record

Record

The term record, in a general sense, is used so extensively. Audio records have been around for decades in the form of vinyls, CDs, cassette tapes and other various forms, and they serve many purposes such as recording music, press conferences and accounts.

Similarly, visual records also come in different forms. Paper records are very common but are being widely replaced by soft copy records stored in computer databases all over the world. The coming of the digital age has made virtual record archives so much more practical and effective.

However this is not quite the record that relates to our group’s collaborative project. Taking the noun form of the word, according to Dictionary.com Unabridged, record is defined as:

“An account in writing or the like preserving the memory of knowledge of facts or events.”

As mentioned before, records come in both hard and soft copy, and in the case of our collaborative studio project, each passing week proves to surface more records in the form of notes, emails, handouts etc. as well as emphasizing the need for other forms of records including work charts, timetables, tables and recordings.

Record-keeping is a task in itself, as records inherently need to be organized into a coherent form to be more effective. An example of this would be in a library, where there can be hundreds of thousands of records in the form of books, journals, microfilms and other resources. Without effective record-keeping, it would be almost impossible to find what you are looking for. In the same way, notes we take in class, emails we send to each other, work we do, all must be organized in some way.

By definition, records preserve the memory of knowledge of facts or events so they not only form the backbone of the body of work, but in their other form they can also provide a direction in which the body of works can grow efficiently and effectively. In our group, some of our key records are documents outlining designated tasks, emails outlining projected outcome timetables and screenshots/videos of all of our progressive work.

References:

record. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/record (accessed: April 14, 2008).