The Archive of Silence(s):
Redistributing archival power through phygital spaces in Pretoria
Using Marabastad as a tester site, the Archive of Silence(s) will look to decentralise and redistribute archival power from the biased National Archives of South Africa to South African communities, allowing them to record their silenced histories.
Marabastad’s Archive of Silence(s) is built in 2045. Following the state’s attempts to rid Pretoria of townships in 2023, the frequent demolitions and the subsequent soil erosion have seen Marabastad develop into a dust wasteland by the year 2045. The Orient Archive which was the site for a failed community archive is discovered and in it are its repositories in the form of physical objects.
The residents begin to build the Archive of Silence(s) on the Orient Theatre using the discovered reposited artefacts as building materials. The construction of the archive subverts the discriminatory process used at the National Archives of South Africa using a robotic arm, concrete-methylcellulose panels with artefacts embedded in them, the vast amounts of cotton canvas available in Marabastad and steel which is used as the primary storing material in the state archive.
The archive is built and arranged to describe chosen community narratives. The Archive of Silence(s) is also built to allow for the reconstruction of history by future generations. This is done by designing for its decay every twenty years, positioning each generation as ancestors in the writing of manifestos for the future. The success of this archive proves that an archive that truly reflects intricate community values, culture, beliefs, and memories cannot exist separate from everyday community life.
