MODAVISA RESEARCH PROJECT
THE WHOLE PROJECT, AT A GLANCE

Find your thread.

ESC
10 notebooks
01 / Research

Virtual Acoustic Objects

An instrument is more than its shape. Bring its sound, structure and evidence together.

7 pages
02 / Research

Research & questions

How can digital representations keep musical heritage open to critical inquiry?

7 pages
03 / Research

Recording & fieldwork

From an instrument in a room to an attributable, reusable recording.

4 pages
04 / Resources

Navigator

An evidence-led workspace for exploring instruments, people, places and histories.

3 pages
05 / Resources

Pipe Organ Dataset

A versioned corpus of organological records, connected to their sources.

4 pages
06 / Resources

Tools & experiences

The tools, standards and research collections of MODAVIS, with their responsibilities and release status.

8 pages
07 / Foundations

Ontologies

A shared language for instruments, evidence, historical states and digital representations.

6 pages
08 / Foundations

Standards & citation

Stable identities, explicit versions and inspectable content.

5 pages
09 / Foundations

About the project

Musical instruments, digital scholarship and the possibilities of open research.

3 pages
10 / Foundations

Journal & milestones

A dated route through the project’s published standards, data and research.

2 pages
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NOTEBOOK 07

Ontologies

You’re reading the fixed September 2026 · revised edition.Current notebook ↗
FOUNDATIONS / NOTEBOOK 07

Keep the claim and its grounds together

An accepted fact can be useful without making its supporting evidence disappear.

2 min read · September 2026 · revised
A REFERENCE YOU CAN RETURN TO

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MODAVIS (2026). Keep the claim and its grounds together — Ontologies & vocabularies. Research notebooks, September 2026 · revised edition. https://modavis.org/editions/2026-09-r2/ontologies/evidence/

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The ontology distinguishes a source, a fixed snapshot of that source, a relevant fragment and the claim supported by it. It also represents conflicts and editorial decisions. A simplified research view can then remain connected to the richer account behind it.

01SourceWhat is documented
02RepresentationWhat is interpreted
03ExperienceWhat is made accessible
FIG. Evidence and decisions support a representation; an interface provides one view of that representation.

Time and context are not optional decoration

A component’s role or an instrument’s configuration can depend on a historical state. An assertion’s applicability can depend on context. If the scope is not known, it should not silently become universal.

Validate the model, review the interpretation

OWL distinctions and SHACL constraints help catch incompatible identities and malformed data. They complement, rather than replace, source criticism and organological judgement.

MODAVIS Ontology Network 0.1.0The published semantic model.

Sources & further reading

  1. MODAVIS Ontology Network 0.1.0

    The published semantic model.

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