![[Object Guitar Archive banner 2.jpeg]] # Prepared Guitar - Object Guitar Archive > [!abstract] Introduction > The Object Guitar Archive is a work-in-progress archive documenting and feeding the prepared guitar practice. It is created and maintained by Hugo Ariëns. For more information about Hugo, visit [hugoariens.nl](http://hugoariens.nl). The Archive is born out of Hugo's master research at the Institute of Sonology in The Hague. Click [here](https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/2373492/2373491) to read his master thesis, which goes deeper into Hugo's prepared guitar practice and the underlying concepts that provide the foundation of the Object Guitar Archive. > [!abstract] Table of Contents > - [[§ Guitar Objects]] > - [[§ Object Guitar Assemblages]] > - [[§ Workshop Recordings]] > - [[§ Prepared guitar practitioners]] The *Object Guitar Archive* is a place to engage with the guitar from different angles and to keep track of the evolution of my practice with the **prepared tabletop electric guitar**. This digital archive is built out of individual notes (files) grouped into note types. Each note type presents a different angle for analysis. The following note types exist in the archive: - Object notes - [[§ Guitar Objects]]: each individual object that is used in the object guitar practice. - Assemblage notes - [[§ Object Guitar Assemblages]]: assemblages describe the configuration of actors as defined at a particular moment. - Recording notes - [[§ Workshop Recordings]]: recordings made while practicing. - Practitioner notes - [[§ Prepared guitar practitioners]]: other prepared guitar practitioners related to the object guitar practice. - Daily notes: a journal-like linear structuring of the information contained in the other note types. These notes are not accessible online. This archive is used for its creative potential. It is not finished, nor will it ever be finished. As the instrument practice is endless, so is the archive. It is in constant development as long as I practice the object guitar. Its principal function is not to provide a finished product for others to see but to stimulate my creativity to help me develop new music, instruments, guitar objects, and connections. Using questions as its driving force, the archive itself must enable curiosity and exploration. The archive centralizes questions, potential openings, possibilities, and ideas. Simultaneously the archive leaves enough of the structure open for these to take shape however needed. All notes are densely connected using hyperlinks and tags. A central tenet of the *Object Guitar Archive* is providing context for my exploratory practice method ([4.2. _Exploratory Practice_](https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/2373492/2373491#Exploratorypractice). I search for this context within the practice by looking for connections between objects, assemblages, recordings, and practitioners. But there is also the context outside of my own practice, in the form of contemporary and historical related examples. Each note type is built on a specific template that structures the information related to the note. Structure is important to give direction to the practice, but it can also limit exploration. The structure should always remain open enough to shape itself around my curiosity and allow for the idiosyncrasies of the improvised nature of the process. In the subsequent sections, the structuring of the templates will be further examined. The object guitar archive is non-prescriptive. Existing prepared guitar literature often prescribes specific techniques, objects, and even the dimensions of those objects. This implies that objects of exact dimensions will give the same result if transferred to another guitar and that there is a “good” or “bad” way of using objects. However, a sound being “good” or “bad” depends entirely on its musical implementation. Each guitar setup and each assemblage of objects is unique and will react in a different way. It is of no use then to prescribe certain techniques or objects. The object guitar archive is entirely written in Markdown. Markdown is a plain-text markup language and, as such, is one of the most future-proof ways to preserve information digitally. Each note contains a UID (unique identifier) to make it searchable regardless of the software that is used. ## Archive development - [[202405042255 How to Advance the Object Guitar Archive?]]