Dancing with the Past: Connecting Communities Across Time

Dancing with the Past: connecting communities across time

Problem Long-term thinking becomes difficult when people lack a sense of connection, particularly a connection to present place. The sharing of local knowledge can foster this sense of connection but can be inaccessible to those not already embedded in communities, making it challenging to ‘place’ oneself in the long-term future.

Process A shared process of autoethnography informed our design and we took inspiration from traditional forms of dance as mediums for sharing local custom and tradition. We codesigned through a series of semi-structured interviews and workshops, where we learned that a low-fidelity intervention is preferred for being more inviting and provocative. We ideated around a design to foster community engagement through dance, using archived footage to allow new types of intergenerational interaction within public spaces.

Proposal ‘Dancing with the Past’ is a local engagement tool to create spaces for interaction with historical and contemporary local knowledge expressed through performance and movement. Engagement with a local community, its people, and its history, creates a sense of connection to place that allows and encourages longterm thinking.

Research

Through conducting desk research and interviews with a range of different people from a variety of backgrounds we gathered some key insights.

“Remembering the past to inspire the future”

“How to be a good ancestor.”

“A long-term seed storage facility, built to stand the test of time — and the challenge of natural or manmade disasters.”

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Personas from our interviews Transferred to the UK one year ago, she’s a Harry Potter fan and dream to help animals in her future job.

Mohini, 11 years old Student India

Mark, 50 years old Prof. Geography & Enviorment Canada

Hao, 24 years old Sport science student China

Olivia, 36 years old Architect England

- likes to have fun & play - engages with social media

He’s a husband, father, and university professor in a small town, interested in how local communities can use local knowledge and strengths to thrive.

“At my school we used to form groups and help people in need.

I felt good!”

Needs - Playing with friends - Travel with her family - Caring for animals

“What assests already exist in a community?”

Needs - To value elders - Inspired by indigenous perspective Challenges - Short termism of political institution

- resilient - community development

After he graduate, he went to Germany to obtain a master. He is interested in wellbeing and want to help athletes to be in their best shape.

- gender equality - care for others

Living in London, working for a large architecture firm engaged in conservation work. Interests include social justice, design and the environment.

- reflective - interest in art

Challenges - Boredom - Isolation

“Long term goals should be easy to achieve, but not be mediocre.”

Needs - Want to be useful - Do regurarly activities and sport

“The future feels less scary if there is something I can do.”

Needs - Wants to feel part of a community but doesn’t know where to start

Opportunities - Interaction with others - Motivation through cooperation with others

Long term thinking is hard

Increased sense of belonging within comunities is empowering

Opportunities - Promote collectivity with local autonomy and storytelling - Increased sense of belonging within communities create to a sense of social responsibility and potential for action

Storytelling as a form of engagement

Opportunities - Equality

Challenges - Social media anxiety - Diffiuclties to think alone for the collective

Challenges - Capitalism, climate crisis - Long term plans can be difficult to achieve

PROBLEMS

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Feeling isolated and disconnected from wider communities

“So it’s the whole living system interconnected by these intergenerational symbiotic relationships. And those bindings are what we call whakapapa.”

“If we want our children to grow up to be thoughtful and engaged citizens, we should help them be part of social change now.”

Opportunities - The potential to learn from other cultures and ways of doing things

OPPORTUNITIES

“Art and culture will be crucial to cultivating long-term attitudes and behaviours.”

The future is overwhelming

Indigenous knowledge resides within the landscape Collective action drives motivation

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How might we create joy in bringing knowledge from the past into the present?

Based on our insights, we came to understand the importance of joy and long-term connections to the past in bringing people together and fostering a sense of connection to people and place. During our design process we generated a range of ideas that we then prototyped for feedback in order to arrive at our final proposal.

Co - Design Workshop

MAIN INSIGHTS

Intruduced the concept with sketches and videos about the event and holograms techniques. Focus on what works, what doesn’t and what are the possible barriers.

Event Co-designed with and for local communities.

Provocative.

Surprise factor.

Pepper ‘s Ghost holograms technique Low-fi and low-cost.

Accesible technology.

The audience has agency and autonomy over how they engage with the performance.

AR holograms technique Where do we see long term synergies in other cultures/ communities?

How can we make it accessible/possible?

Dance as a medium Folk traditions such as English Morris dancing or Indonesian Kecak Fire dances pass on stories and rituals through dance, collapsing time and passing knowledge through performance.

Holograms as a immersive experience Engagement through creating joy and triggering an emotional response linked to a particular community and place.

Personalised and individual experience.

Requires technical expertise to create and reproduce.

Excludes those without access to devices.

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Proposal

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Encouraging People and Communities to Think and Act for the Long Term - scenario - key points

Toolkit: Pepper’s Ghost & Workshop The Pepper’s Ghost technique was selected as the best way of creating an immersive experience using archive footage with accessible technology at low-cost.

Community members themselves can create

Mike arrives in his new neighbourhood, he is exicted to know more about the place and to have new experiences

His new home is in an urban environment where there is little evidence of the rich cultural heritage of the area

In an otherwise unassuming parking lot, members of the community gather to relive historical celebrations

Transparent material

Projector

Suddently Mike hears something, the holographic ‘Lion dance’ grabs his attention and sparks his interest

An older person involved in the event sees his curious face and approaches him to tell him more about the performance

Community building - shared experiences through a joyful event Preservation of local traditions a form of live, visual data bank, actively preserving culture Involves co-designing with other people, reducing atomisation within the local community

“That guy in the middle is me 50 years ago. Look what we used to do here, look at the changed surroundings!”

Archive footage of dances taken in the community in the past can be projected onto a transparent surface such as a perspex screen or lightweight hanging material.

The project will search for diverse examples of dance within local areas, forming a kind of local history project in the planning stages, supporting local people to be more educated and aware of diversity now and in the past within their local communities around the world.

Some unintended consequences: • tourism • conflict, differences of opinions between group members • exploring the past could potentially reignite old tensions within communities, yet also provide space for discussion to resolve previous traumas through the codesign process

It aims to engage all senses - sound, vision, touch, smell to support inclusion. People start talking, laughing and even dancing with each other as a result of seeing the performance. People with disabilities or additional needs are included through the accessibility of the experience.

Delivery Model

Using a systems thinking approach, our delivery model embeds the project within local communities through a co-design process.

Legacy Plan

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Potential ongoing use of the techniques and outputs of the project to be determined by the community groups involved.

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5 Give Back

Archives

Stage 2

Planning Stage

Finalising the concept - including events and legacy planning - different groups working on different elements of the plan with an identified facilitator.

Support education within traditional and alternative education settings - linked to national curriculum / local history / identity / culture / sustainability / local issues linked to community development needs, ecology, the built & natural environments, health and well-being.

Footages

Materials Workshop Pepper Ghost

Potential funding partners could include national / local archives as well as arts and cultural sources of funding from local and national levels e.g.: - Performing Arts and the Conservation of Historic Objects Fund, Leche Trust - Annual culture funding, Scottish Goverment - etc.

Creation of the Pepper’s Ghost device(s) and staging within the chosen location(s), alongside any additional activities that have come out of the earlier co-design phases.

Deeper dive into gathering footage and discussions re. representation / identity / local / national culture - whose history / culture and for whom?

(e.g. National Archive Scotland)

Funders

Stage 4

Stage 3

Dance clips for next generations/events.

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Films Projectors etc.

Partner Agencies - Local Schools / colleges - Local community groups - community development / history / photography / film etc.

- Local newspaper / radio - Local Authority - Libraries - Local and National archives

Stage 1

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Introducing the concept and exploring local events, activities, archives, including connection to national curriculum and local history (ending with identification of committed partners / individuals).

Support community engagement and help bring together disparate groups using the arts and drawing on local knowledge / archives. Co-design of the ‘holographic’ spectacle itself and associated community events to celebrate and engage wider members of the community.

Spaces/Building

Info flow Fund flow Material flow Space flow Perfomance flow

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Potential Barriers • Covid - could be delivered remotely / with a blended approach. Final events would be outdoors and could be socially distanced • Lack of engagement from local community groups and partners • Access / permissions for the installation in a public space from the Local Council / private people • Lack of time / resources / footage • Income generation