This Way Out and the Activating Archive

Abstract

Abstract:Through This Way Out, a film produced by the American Friends Service Committee, this piece considers the possibility of the “activating archive,” a collection that charges us to look at an object that doesn’t make sense and to reevaluate our assumptions. Maybe archival materials—and particularly the accidental or mysterious ones—have the power to politicize us, similarly to how our intentional decisions can politicize collections.