This document provides tips and guidance for effectively documenting projects and events. It emphasizes that documentation is important for preserving cultural memory and history. Key recommendations include clearly defining the purpose and intended audience for documentation upfront, choosing appropriate formats and distribution methods, and ensuring materials are well-organized and preserved as an archive. Effective documentation involves telling a compelling story and integrating communication, process documentation, and archiving.

1. DOCUMENTING YOUR PROJECT
TOP TIPS! - WHY, HOW, WHO

2. DOCUMENTATION – THE 5 MINUTE MANIFESTO!
• Independent culture needs to protect its memory in order to claim its future
• Tell your story - validate your work
• Culture is more than one story – make your voice heard
• Renegotiate the process of writing history, herstory, ourstory, all stories
• Integrating communication, process and documentation is the key to success
• A collective memory requires a collective process
Try to make a manifesto with your own documentation team. Make it fast and playful!

3. WHY DOCUMENT?
Answer the question ‘why document?’
first. Answering this question will inform
what gets documented, how it is done
and who the potential audience is.
Be as clear as you can.

4. Identify key questions and issues
and find the best solutions
• What kind of documentation is best for your
event – could it be video, photos, audio, mak-
ing a book? Consciously make a choice!
• Who will be the audience for your documenta-
tion? Will it be politicians first, then the media?
Will it be artists or arts managers? Will it be
your local community? Prioritise!
• To reach your audience, what distribution meth-
ods will you use? Direct mail? Facebook?
YouTube? Carrier Pigeon? Using the right me-
dium is the key to reaching your target audience.
• Will the documentation communicate clearly
and simply with your audience? Always see it
from the audience point of view.
• Will the audience be able to access your documen-
tation easily? One click and they see it? One button
and they hear it? One wall and they view it?
• Will there be an opportunity for your potential
audience to respond – email, blog, comments?
• Don’t forget to tag, date, name for easy access!

5. TELL YOUR STORY
All documentation is about telling a story. Your story should be unique, interesting
and confident. It could be inspiring, dramatic, entertaining or fun!
Documentation should be part of each project plan.

6. THE BEST FORMAT, THE RIGHT PEOPLE, A CLEAR BRIEF
Once you know what you want to document and who the potential audience is, then you need to choose:
• The right format for the job – if your main distribution outlet is YouTube, a three-hour film will be useless.
• Get the best person(s) possible for the job – it will save money and time in the long run.
• Make sure everyone is clear on the brief – write it down.

7. PROTECT YOUR ARCHIVE
As your stories evolve into an archive, make sure it is
stored, protected and valued.
Have a backup copy!
Pass on the knowledge if you leave the organisation.

8. Make documentation and archiving
a core activity of your organisation
Without your past, you cannot create your future –
all culture is based on precedent. The independent
cultural sector is very bad at this, mainly because it
is poorly resourced and always consumed with
‘doing’. Mainstream culture is very good at validat-
ing its history through documentation – books,
academic papers, catalogues… libraries full of
material. Documenting and archiving is important!

9. CHECK OUT 1
Wordpress – a blog tool and publish-
ing software. It is free and you can
easily change its look by choosing a
different theme. To set up a simple
blog, go to http://wordpress.com and
you can get started in a few minutes.
Floss Manuals – Free manuals for free
software http://flossmanuals.net

10. CHECK OUT 2
Scribing – or graphic recording, is a technique for visualizing concepts and discussions in a graphic
format. A graphic facilitator (or scribe) works on large walls, using marker pens to map conversa-
tions live at events. The ‘scribe’ interprets and draws ideas quickly, using pictures, diagrams and
symbols to make ideas visible and accessible. See examples at www.thevalueweb.org
Book Sprints – a social way of producing books and e-books, which enable you to create a book
in 2-5 days and which you can then publish in 2-5 minutes. Find out how at www.booksprints.net

11. Background
This slide show is based on a documentation
workshop, which took place in October 2011,
during the Trans Europe Halles Meeting 72 at
TNT, Bordeaux, France.
The workshop is the first part in a series of
workshops on Documentation, carried out
within the Engine Room Europe project. It
was a day of collective work on documenta-
tion, sharing of knowledge and learning by
doing. This booklet captures the key content
of the workshop and aims to inspire others
to document their activitites and centres in a
more fun and useful way.
Many thanks to Mick Fuzz from People’s Voice
Media (UK) who facilitated the workshop!

12. Workshop Participants
Yann Chevalier, Confort Moderne, Poitiers, France
Sigrid Neimer, ufaFabrik, Berlin, Germany
Engine Room Europe is a three year programme (April 2011-May 2014) of activities dedicated to Barbara Denes, Bakelit Multi Art Centre, Budapest, Hungary
independent cultural workers and their creative processes. It is initiated by Trans Europe Halles (TEH) Sara Fazzini, Interzona, Verona, Italy
and co-ordinated by Melkweg (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) in association with 10 co-organizing TEH Arne de Wit, P60, Amstelveen, The Netherlands
members. Engine Room Europe has been funded with the support of the European Commission. This Annette Wolfsberger, Engine Room Europe, The Netherlands
publication [communication] reflects the view only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held
Sandy Fitzgerald, Engine Room Europe, The Netherlands
responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
Marta Guijarro Broncano, Ateneu Santboiá, Barcelona, Spain
Helena Herou, Röda Sten, Göteborg, Sweden
Text: Anna Weitz, Sandy Fitzgerald This publication is produced under a Creative Commons Licence Johan Widerholm, Mejeriet, Lund, Sweden
Photo & Layout: Anna Weitz 3.0 Unported (Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike). You Jonas Boutani Werner, Subtopia, Stockholm, Sweden
Graphic design: Daan Drubbel may copy, distribute and show in public the texts and transla-
Leif Pettersson, Elektra, Västerås, Sweden
Download your copy at www.teh.net tions for non-commercial purposes. Trans Europe Halles, 2012