The Shakespeare Electronic Archive: Collections and multimedia tools for teaching and research, 1992–2008

Abstract

This essay reviews the recent work of the MIT-based Shakespeare Electronic Archive, focusing on two major current projects: XMAS (Cross-Media Annotation System), which provides tools for video clip definition and annotation using DVD and streaming video for use in online discussions and multimedia essays, and Expanding the Shakespeare Electronic Archive, aimed at developing an expanded collection for Hamlet in collaboration with the editors of HamletWorks and others and on creating a new collection on Shakespeare Performance in Asia which will include complete video records of many of the most celebrated productions to emerge in the sustained burst of creativity and experimentation that has marked Asian work on Shakespeare over the last 20 years. The Asian Shakespeare project will use streaming video in a web-based archive, and will offer new tools for advanced searches and for excerpting and annotating video sequences for use in online essays and publications.

Keywords:

• Shakespeare
• digital humanities
• digital archives
• educational technology
• MIT
• Shakespeare in Asia
• Hamlet

Notes

1. Aspects of this idea are covered extensively in some of my previous work. See Donaldson, “The Shakespeare Electronic Archive”, “Shakespeare and Electronic Textuality”, “Digital Archives and Sibylline Fragments”.

2. Contact <[email protected]>.

3. See <http://web.mit.edu/shakspere/sia/sia5.html>.