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2008-07-23T13:36:00.000-07:00

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What is TASK?

2008-07-10T11:08:00.000-07:00

Task is an improvisational event with a simple structure and very few rules. Task can be a planned, more formal set-up with an application process and a pre-determined number of selected participants (called Task events), or a more open structure without any limitations of size or divisions between viewers and participants (called Task parties).

Both Task structures, the events and parties, rely on the same basic infastructure: a stage (usually but not necessarily made from construction paper), a variety of props and materials (cardboard, plastic bags, pencils, tables cling wrap, tape, markers, ladders...) and the participation of people who agree to follow two simple, procedural rules: to write down a task on a piece of paper and add it to a designated "task pool," and, secondly, to pull a task from that pool and interpret it any which way he or she wants, using whatever is on (or potentially off) stage. When a task is completed, a participant writes a new task, pulls a new task, and so on.

Task's open-ended, participatory structure creates almost unlimited opportunities for a group of people to interact with one another and their environment. The event's flow and momentum depends on the tasks written and interpreted by the participants. The continuous, simultaneous conception and interpretation of tasks fills the stage with seemingly chaotic, yet purpose driven activity: a complex, ever shifting, socio-sculptural arrangement of bodies and objects.