{ "title": "The thesis: from evidence to an encounter — Research & questions", "text": "MODAVIS (2026). The thesis: from evidence to an encounter — Research & questions. Research notebooks, September 2026 · Connected evidence edition. https://modavis.org/editions/2026-09-r6/research/thesis/", "bibtex": "@misc{modavis_research_thesis_2026_09_r6,\n author = {{MODAVIS}},\n title = {The thesis: from evidence to an encounter — Research & questions},\n year = {2026},\n month = {09},\n version = {2026-09-r6},\n url = {https://modavis.org/editions/2026-09-r6/research/thesis/},\n note = {Content SHA-256: df7f1277368aa2f26b183397a147dd8c7f5afcbd1d09252f7e80367cc689b249}\n}", "url": "https://modavis.org/editions/2026-09-r6/research/thesis/", "sha256": "df7f1277368aa2f26b183397a147dd8c7f5afcbd1d09252f7e80367cc689b249", "edition": "2026-09-r6", "date": "2026-09-26", "canonicalPayload": "{\"book\":{\"number\":\"02\",\"slug\":\"research\",\"title\":\"Research & questions\"},\"chapter\":{\"blocks\":[{\"id\":\"double-translation\",\"text\":\"Two translations, with a trace between them\",\"type\":\"heading\"},{\"text\":\"An instrument reaches a digital environment through two transformations. First, material objects, documentary sources and measurements become structured representations: an image, a pitch estimate, a geometry, a claim about a builder. Second, software turns those representations into something a person can inspect, hear or play. Each transformation makes choices. A recording fixes microphone positions; a model selects a historical state; an interface selects which relationships a visitor can see.\",\"type\":\"p\"},{\"text\":\"The thesis treats both transformations as research problems. A visually convincing reconstruction is insufficient if its component dimensions have no traceable basis. An extensively documented package is also insufficient for an interactive question if the player cannot identify the relevant controls or understand which parts are hypothetical. MODAVIS connects these demands through an evidence model, a research corpus, acquisition and processing tools, and the Virtual Acoustic Object.\",\"type\":\"p\"},{\"id\":\"executable-edition\",\"text\":\"An executable critical edition\",\"type\":\"heading\"},{\"text\":\"The idea of an executable critical edition brings scholarly apparatus into the behavior of the digital object. A historical edition can distinguish a source reading from an editorial emendation. A VAO can similarly distinguish captured audio from generated audio, observed geometry from reconstructed geometry, and documented action from an interaction model. The apparatus should remain available when the object is executed, rather than disappearing behind the experience.\",\"type\":\"p\"},{\"text\":\"This framing changes the meaning of preservation. The objective is to preserve the possibility of asking questions: which instrument state was recorded, how an acoustic response was obtained, what processing was applied, and which alternative explanations remain plausible. The original instrument, its research representation and a playable virtual instrument have related but distinct identities.\",\"type\":\"p\"},{\"headers\":[\"Research layer\",\"Question\",\"Connection to the project\"],\"rows\":[[\"Domain and history\",\"Which object, state, configuration and action does a description concern?\",\"Instrument modeling, contextual assertions and reconstruction hypotheses.\"],[\"Corpus and sources\",\"What evidence is available, and how was it selected and transformed?\",\"Pipe Organ Dataset, Navigator, source fragments and provenance.\"],[\"Acquisition and reconstruction\",\"Which properties were measured, inferred, simulated or authored?\",\"OrgRec, processing modules, geometry and acoustic workflows.\"],[\"Representation and access\",\"How can exact research assets remain usable across applications?\",\"VAO manifests, delivery profiles, clients and interactive experiences.\"],[\"Evaluation\",\"Which properties of the result have actually been tested?\",\"Separate evidence, measurement, semantics, reproducibility, experience and access criteria.\"]],\"type\":\"table\"},{\"id\":\"reconstruction-space\",\"text\":\"A space of defensible reconstructions\",\"type\":\"heading\"},{\"text\":\"Missing evidence rarely determines one complete historical object. The thesis therefore treats reconstruction as a constrained hypothesis space: available evidence and explicit conditions delimit possible realizations. A candidate can be useful without becoming the uniquely correct past. A different documented assumption may produce another legitimate candidate. Recording the assumptions makes comparison possible and prevents a later user from mistaking a convenient default for a historical observation.\",\"type\":\"p\"},{\"text\":\"Decomposition and recomposition provide a practical method. Separate an organ into components, functional relations, acoustic roles and historical phases; then check whether a reconstructed configuration can be reassembled consistently. A pipe belongs to a physical configuration, responds within a wind and control system, and is heard in a room. Keeping these relations explicit helps locate a disagreement: geometry, attribution, tuning, action, room response or playback behavior.\",\"type\":\"p\"},{\"boundary\":\"No new simulation, measured frequency or complete pipe reconstruction is supplied by this example.\",\"caseLabel\":\"Cuntz\",\"concept\":\"A reconstruction combines evidence with assumptions to produce a possible representation. A simulation computes behavior under specified model conditions.\",\"evidence\":\"Illustrative scenario\",\"expanded\":false,\"id\":\"cuntz-reconstruction\",\"scenario\":\"Suppose a researcher uses the Cuntz GesL observation to help constrain a pipe model. This is an illustrative reconstruction task; the single value is not a complete geometric description.\",\"sources\":[{\"detail\":\"Published manifest: identities, measurement observations, realization digests, profiles and rights. Exact examples checked against this release.\",\"href\":\"https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22151203\",\"label\":\"Cuntz Positiv · VAO 0.5.0-rc.2\"},{\"detail\":\"Submitted dissertation, 11 September 2026; §§8.2.2.1 and 8.4.1, printed pp. 264–265 and 275–276. The historical description and digital inventory require a resolved mapping; the manuscript is not redistributed here.\",\"label\":\"Dominik Ukolov · Musikinstrumente im virtuellen Raum (2026)\"}],\"steps\":[{\"text\":\"The observation identifies one property, one pipe, one result and one source. It does not provide every interior dimension, material parameter or boundary condition needed by an acoustic model.\",\"title\":\"List what is supplied\"},{\"text\":\"Record the additional dimensions and physical assumptions with their origin. Parameters chosen for convenience should not appear as measured values.\",\"title\":\"Label what is assumed\"},{\"text\":\"If parameters are adjusted to match a known frequency, that same match is not an independent validation. Compare with suitable independent evidence and retain the model’s domain of use.\",\"title\":\"Keep fitting and testing separate\"}],\"takeaway\":\"A plausible reconstruction is a documented hypothesis constrained by evidence, not a recovered certainty.\",\"title\":\"When does a modeled pipe become a historical hypothesis?\",\"type\":\"example\"},{\"id\":\"reading-the-contribution\",\"text\":\"How to read the contribution\",\"type\":\"heading\"},{\"text\":\"Read the research model, released artifacts and empirical findings at their own levels. The thesis develops and evaluates a connected architecture; each software release has a narrower implementation contract. A standard may specify capabilities that a particular importer does not execute. A prepared experimental protocol explains how a future study could be conducted, but does not supply its results. The case studies show how these distinctions operate in concrete instruments.\",\"type\":\"p\"},{\"items\":[{\"detail\":\"Cuntz organ, Ariston discs and Propstglocke.\",\"href\":\"/notebooks/research/case-studies/\",\"label\":\"Read the three case studies\"},{\"detail\":\"Six dimensions and the evidence needed for each.\",\"href\":\"/notebooks/research/evaluation/\",\"label\":\"Understand the evaluation framework\"},{\"detail\":\"A worked example of instruments, states and events.\",\"href\":\"/notebooks/ontologies/identity/\",\"label\":\"Model identity and change\"}],\"type\":\"links\"}],\"intro\":\"The dissertation connects organological research, digital preservation and interactive access. Its central question concerns what must remain inspectable when an instrument becomes a digital research object.\",\"slug\":\"thesis\",\"sources\":[{\"detail\":\"Dissertation submitted to Universität Leipzig, 11 September 2026. Sections 1.3 and 2.4; chapter 3, especially §§3.2.7 and 3.8; chapter 8. Page numbers refer to the printed manuscript pagination. The manuscript is not distributed by this website.\",\"label\":\"Dominik Ukolov · Musikinstrumente im virtuellen Raum (2026)\"},{\"detail\":\"Normative standard, profile index, Dynamic Delivery Profile and conformance specification in the versioned release.\",\"href\":\"https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22214248\",\"label\":\"VAO Standard 0.5.0\"},{\"detail\":\"Release README, fourteen module descriptions and SHACL validation contract.\",\"href\":\"https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22126086\",\"label\":\"MODAVIS Ontology Network 0.1.0\"}],\"title\":\"The thesis: from evidence to an encounter\"},\"date\":\"2026-09-26\",\"edition\":\"2026-09-r6\",\"figures\":{}}", "payload": { "edition": "2026-09-r6", "date": "2026-09-26", "book": { "slug": "research", "title": "Research & questions", "number": "02" }, "chapter": { "slug": "thesis", "title": "The thesis: from evidence to an encounter", "intro": "The dissertation connects organological research, digital preservation and interactive access. Its central question concerns what must remain inspectable when an instrument becomes a digital research object.", "blocks": [ { "type": "heading", "id": "double-translation", "text": "Two translations, with a trace between them" }, { "type": "p", "text": "An instrument reaches a digital environment through two transformations. First, material objects, documentary sources and measurements become structured representations: an image, a pitch estimate, a geometry, a claim about a builder. Second, software turns those representations into something a person can inspect, hear or play. Each transformation makes choices. A recording fixes microphone positions; a model selects a historical state; an interface selects which relationships a visitor can see." }, { "type": "p", "text": "The thesis treats both transformations as research problems. A visually convincing reconstruction is insufficient if its component dimensions have no traceable basis. An extensively documented package is also insufficient for an interactive question if the player cannot identify the relevant controls or understand which parts are hypothetical. MODAVIS connects these demands through an evidence model, a research corpus, acquisition and processing tools, and the Virtual Acoustic Object." }, { "type": "heading", "id": "executable-edition", "text": "An executable critical edition" }, { "type": "p", "text": "The idea of an executable critical edition brings scholarly apparatus into the behavior of the digital object. A historical edition can distinguish a source reading from an editorial emendation. A VAO can similarly distinguish captured audio from generated audio, observed geometry from reconstructed geometry, and documented action from an interaction model. The apparatus should remain available when the object is executed, rather than disappearing behind the experience." }, { "type": "p", "text": "This framing changes the meaning of preservation. The objective is to preserve the possibility of asking questions: which instrument state was recorded, how an acoustic response was obtained, what processing was applied, and which alternative explanations remain plausible. The original instrument, its research representation and a playable virtual instrument have related but distinct identities." }, { "type": "table", "headers": [ "Research layer", "Question", "Connection to the project" ], "rows": [ [ "Domain and history", "Which object, state, configuration and action does a description concern?", "Instrument modeling, contextual assertions and reconstruction hypotheses." ], [ "Corpus and sources", "What evidence is available, and how was it selected and transformed?", "Pipe Organ Dataset, Navigator, source fragments and provenance." ], [ "Acquisition and reconstruction", "Which properties were measured, inferred, simulated or authored?", "OrgRec, processing modules, geometry and acoustic workflows." ], [ "Representation and access", "How can exact research assets remain usable across applications?", "VAO manifests, delivery profiles, clients and interactive experiences." ], [ "Evaluation", "Which properties of the result have actually been tested?", "Separate evidence, measurement, semantics, reproducibility, experience and access criteria." ] ] }, { "type": "heading", "id": "reconstruction-space", "text": "A space of defensible reconstructions" }, { "type": "p", "text": "Missing evidence rarely determines one complete historical object. The thesis therefore treats reconstruction as a constrained hypothesis space: available evidence and explicit conditions delimit possible realizations. A candidate can be useful without becoming the uniquely correct past. A different documented assumption may produce another legitimate candidate. Recording the assumptions makes comparison possible and prevents a later user from mistaking a convenient default for a historical observation." }, { "type": "p", "text": "Decomposition and recomposition provide a practical method. Separate an organ into components, functional relations, acoustic roles and historical phases; then check whether a reconstructed configuration can be reassembled consistently. A pipe belongs to a physical configuration, responds within a wind and control system, and is heard in a room. Keeping these relations explicit helps locate a disagreement: geometry, attribution, tuning, action, room response or playback behavior." }, { "type": "example", "id": "cuntz-reconstruction", "title": "When does a modeled pipe become a historical hypothesis?", "concept": "A reconstruction combines evidence with assumptions to produce a possible representation. A simulation computes behavior under specified model conditions.", "scenario": "Suppose a researcher uses the Cuntz GesL observation to help constrain a pipe model. This is an illustrative reconstruction task; the single value is not a complete geometric description.", "steps": [ { "title": "List what is supplied", "text": "The observation identifies one property, one pipe, one result and one source. It does not provide every interior dimension, material parameter or boundary condition needed by an acoustic model." }, { "title": "Label what is assumed", "text": "Record the additional dimensions and physical assumptions with their origin. Parameters chosen for convenience should not appear as measured values." }, { "title": "Keep fitting and testing separate", "text": "If parameters are adjusted to match a known frequency, that same match is not an independent validation. Compare with suitable independent evidence and retain the model’s domain of use." } ], "takeaway": "A plausible reconstruction is a documented hypothesis constrained by evidence, not a recovered certainty.", "boundary": "No new simulation, measured frequency or complete pipe reconstruction is supplied by this example.", "sources": [ { "label": "Cuntz Positiv · VAO 0.5.0-rc.2", "href": "https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22151203", "detail": "Published manifest: identities, measurement observations, realization digests, profiles and rights. Exact examples checked against this release." }, { "label": "Dominik Ukolov · Musikinstrumente im virtuellen Raum (2026)", "detail": "Submitted dissertation, 11 September 2026; §§8.2.2.1 and 8.4.1, printed pp. 264–265 and 275–276. The historical description and digital inventory require a resolved mapping; the manuscript is not redistributed here." } ], "expanded": false, "caseLabel": "Cuntz", "evidence": "Illustrative scenario" }, { "type": "heading", "id": "reading-the-contribution", "text": "How to read the contribution" }, { "type": "p", "text": "Read the research model, released artifacts and empirical findings at their own levels. The thesis develops and evaluates a connected architecture; each software release has a narrower implementation contract. A standard may specify capabilities that a particular importer does not execute. A prepared experimental protocol explains how a future study could be conducted, but does not supply its results. The case studies show how these distinctions operate in concrete instruments." }, { "type": "links", "items": [ { "label": "Read the three case studies", "href": "/notebooks/research/case-studies/", "detail": "Cuntz organ, Ariston discs and Propstglocke." }, { "label": "Understand the evaluation framework", "href": "/notebooks/research/evaluation/", "detail": "Six dimensions and the evidence needed for each." }, { "label": "Model identity and change", "href": "/notebooks/ontologies/identity/", "detail": "A worked example of instruments, states and events." } ] } ], "sources": [ { "label": "Dominik Ukolov · Musikinstrumente im virtuellen Raum (2026)", "detail": "Dissertation submitted to Universität Leipzig, 11 September 2026. Sections 1.3 and 2.4; chapter 3, especially §§3.2.7 and 3.8; chapter 8. Page numbers refer to the printed manuscript pagination. The manuscript is not distributed by this website." }, { "label": "VAO Standard 0.5.0", "href": "https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22214248", "detail": "Normative standard, profile index, Dynamic Delivery Profile and conformance specification in the versioned release." }, { "label": "MODAVIS Ontology Network 0.1.0", "href": "https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22126086", "detail": "Release README, fourteen module descriptions and SHACL validation contract." } ] }, "figures": {} } }