"Taskifying" the Archives

I am using this space to offer a layout of the methodology I developed while working on To Whom it May Concern.

To "taskify" an archive is to find actions each object within the archive offers.

Some objects are phyiscal, like a coffee cup, for example. Some are more abstract, like a piece of music. Some are texts.

But every single one of them has their offering. In "taskifying", we are looking specifically at concrete actions.

Every archive is a space where those objects circulate. And this circulation is what makes them "sticky" (Ahmed, 2004).

When "taskifying" archives, we are aware of this circulation. The offerings of the objects have to be in relation to the established flow of affect. The archive determines their context. Not all offerings belong to all contexts.

For example, within "To Whom it May Concern", the letters offer the action of writing, more so than reading. That is why the audience is invited to write, rather than read. In writing, the participants are isolated in Dunja's unrelentedness. They are removed from the position of passive readers, and offered to take an active stance.

In Aida Šehović's "Where Have You Been", the offering of the coffee cups is the action of placing the cups and pouring the coffee, rather than drinking the coffee, because the drinkers are the ones who are absent. The ones who pour the coffee for the guests that will never arrive, are positioned to be active in their remembering and grief. (Šehović, 2016-present)

As an example of an untaskified archive that has its offerings, we could look at "What were you wearing?" project. ((Brockman, Wyandt-Hiebert 2013)) These clothing items could be taskified for the audience to wash, fold, or iron them. As a mother would for her daughter, as a girl would ahead of a date, or just to go to the shops.

Once an object is taskified, it should be explored what are the dramaturgical offerings of the archive. Are we going to be exploring these offerings linearly, or in a fragmented dramaturgy? In a ring-like sturcture? These considerations depend not just on the archive, but also on the intended messaging. More precisely, on the intended balance of affective economies within the piece.

The process can be broken down in three parts:

1. Object analysis

2. Exploration of offered actions

3. Dramaturgy

I do not think I invented something, but I do believe I formulated this in a simple, streamlined methodology that enables discovery of core mechanisms of shows or art performances to be. This is reminiscent of Tectonic Theatre Project's Moment Work (2018), as well as Giordano and Pierotti's Affect Theatre methodology (2024), but is particular in a sense that it focuses on immersive forms.