March 2026 post from Sweden by Anders Larson.

At the beginning of the year, it became clear that STTF, the Swedish OISTAT, together with a number of theatre technical organisations and universities, had received approval for the Erasmus+ project Canon II and would be able to start the three-year work. The kick-off meeting for the project was in Brussels in September 2025 and the first physical project and working meeting was held on 14 – 17 January of 2026, which this time was in Amsterdam. 

In the Canon II project, SLF (The Association of Swedish Lighting Designers) is responsible for building up in-depth knowledge and information on how lighting design could be documented and archived for the future. One of the reasons why SLF will be responsible for this is that after the passing of the two lighting designers Hans-Åke Sjökvist and Torkel Blomkvist, the Music and Theatre Library had to take over a large amount of drawings and other documentation, and this will also be the focus when the group gathers for the second physical meeting, which will be in Stockholm on 10-14 June this year. 

During the meeting in Amsterdam, the entire project group was able to learn, among other things, how the Dutch National Opera & Ballet works to manage its documentation from the productions that are performed at the opera. They showed an overview of how it has been done previously, mainly in paper form with photos and printouts of direction and running charts from the various productions. 

Nowadays, they have increasingly collected all documentation in a digital archive, but this was more like a systematized file management system for all information about a production, than a fully designed digital system to future-proof the lighting information about a production. 

As well as looking at how we interpret archives from the past, the Canon II project will produce guidelines that will help theatres and designers now who need to document their work.