The collection of articles written by the author in the past two decades shows a lot of issues, developments, and paradoxes that mount up to some real memories of virtual documents. Looking back, each of the articles was motivated by a conflict the author experienced. All articles were trying to answer questions. The succession from one perspective to another, from one community to another, also indicates that some problems were grown out by just ignoring them, directly solved by taking action, or by changing conditions through advanced technology.

However, the most sensitive sections of these articles follow the gaze of an observer who is incurably interested in cultural and social aspects of the fact that the accumulation of knowledge through sound and audio-visual documents is crucial to the survival of human communities and their environment. This approach is itself brought up through the conflict between steadily progressing technologies and their application in still slowly learning societies.

Gisa Jähnichen, ecomusicologist, currently working at Shanghai Conservatory of Music is an IASA ambassador engaged in audiovisual archiving around the globe, especially in Asia.