The thesis: from evidence to an encounter

Two translations, with a trace between them#

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.

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.

An executable critical edition#

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.

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.

A space of defensible reconstructions#

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.

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.

How to read the contribution#

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.