NOTE: Movie will follow soon after consent of the dancers featuring in the movie.

To test the implementation and intended engagement with the foyer installation proposal, I created an intervention for the ‘Each Other’ Performance of Scottish Ballet.

The foyer installation consisted out of 2 projections representing 2 dancers. On default the projections show the signatures in dynamic form (being drawn out). Only when interacting with the installation, by moving in front of it and ‘dancing’ with the dancers signature. The projection revealed the meaning of the signature by showing the dancer performing the phrase that was drawn out.

This intervention was intended to be placed into the foyer of the performance: the Tramway. Due to practical and curatorial reasons this was not possible anymore and we moved the installation to a donateurs event within Scottish Ballet. This meant only a selected group of audiences were able to interact with the installation before and after the performance. Unfortunately the donateurs themselves had other purposes of networking and socializing in the space and time given, resulting in little to no interaction with the installation. Furthermore no to little interaction was possible due to malfunctioning of the sensors and program.

Though when the interaction was explained the interaction itself was very interesting for the audiences. By moving they started to explore and ‘unlock’ the hidden layers. Suggestions to be able to create an own signature, unlock more stories creating ma more responsive installation were made by the audiences.

During the process of building the installation I experienced a great challenge in involving the dancers and, moreover, recordings of the dancers performing in the piece. Encountering these challenges made me aware of the difficulties implementing such a system into the everyday practices of Scottish Ballet.

The very simplest things to do, for us on tour, are much more complicated than anybody else who has their own central venue.

This insight was enhanced in a conversation with Steven Roth, financial director of Scottish Ballet. Although the intention of sharing the inner workings of the dancer was valued, due to the complexity of the installation it was very unlikely to be implement in the arrangements of a traveling company.

Furthermore I experienced that trough the process I gained a thorough understanding of the dancer and its processes. Hence they liked the installation and the process very much. Yet I barely knew the audience, and therefore I had little to no ‘evidence’ this would actually effect audience engagement.

With these insights I came to the conclusion, that to truly make impact within Scottish Ballet I had to reframe my project. Create a tool which enables a bottom-up approach, where dancers and the organisation take ownership over audience engagement and the required output.

This resulted in the design brief: design for meaningful and authentic communication from dancer to audience. With this brief the dancers signature functions as a tool that generates honest, open and inspiring stories about how the dancer experience their performance. This data can than be used in an array of audience engagement activities which tessellates in all other activities in the customer journey managed by Scottish Ballet.