Russian University Opens Lab to Digitize Folklore Databases
A new research center in Yakutsk is digitizing the musical heritage of Siberia and the Russian Far East, bringing decades of folklore archives into the age of AI and digital media.
A new research center dedicated to the digital processing and systematization of the musical heritage of Siberian and Far Eastern peoples has opened at the Arctic State Institute of Culture and Arts in Yakutsk.
According to rector Sargylana Ignatyeva, cited by TASS, the ethnomusicology lab was built on the foundation of a vast audiovisual archive of traditional culture from North Asia, collected since the 1960s by Professor Yuri Sheikin. His collection, the result of 104 expeditions, contains samples of epic heritage, narrative folklore, ritual and festive culture, songs, small folklore genres, instrumental music, imitations of natural sounds as part of traditional acoustic culture, and examples of musical folklorism.
Researchers will have access to the digital archive to develop new methods for analyzing traditional music using modern tools such as AI, 3D modeling, and acoustic analysis. The lab also aims to create media content for music platforms based on the folklore of North Asia’s indigenous peoples.
