Performance Instigation

PERFORMANCE INSTIGATION live action data collection, visualization, & deployment for open innovation VITA VIBRARE, AN ARTS -IN-ACTION CONSULTANCY Anna B. Scott, Principal/Master Conduit

PERFORMANCE INSTIGATION

CONTENTS FLOW .................................................................................................................................. 3 Action List ........................................................................................................................... 4 What is PI? .......................................................................................................................... 5 The Shift .............................................................................................................................. 6 The Show ............................................................................................................................ 7

PI dancer in a bus station

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copyright Anna B. Scott, 2011, all rights reserved

FLOW through the Conduit

After an incredible year of research, development, and performance, I am very excited to share a glimpse of a new process for open innovation: Performance Instigation. In this quick catalogue, you will find some lists, some claims, some commandments, likely some overstatement, but especially you will find inspiration. PI is a gift. How often does your data visualization sing and dance for you? Have you ever had the chance to have a conversation with a building? Are you anxious to innovate with your staff and customers? Have a look. Jot some notes. Contact me for more details

Anna Beatrice Scott, Ph.D. is The Master Conduit at the arts and action consultancy, Vita Vibrare, where thinking is done at a higher frequency. An Arts in Action agitator, Vita Vibrare provides strategy, programs, user engagement studies and analysis to develop innovative story making tools at the nexus of traditional and new media. Scott has worked in arts management, production, performance, research and education since the late 1980s. Her work and process traverse many genres and roles; she is a convergent human.

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copyright Anna B. Scott, 2011, all rights reserved

PERFORMANCE INSTIGATION DEMONSTRATES The service is the brand.

The brand is the interface.

The interface is the experience of the service.

The brand coaches the user.

A service failure is an opportunity for new development.

PERFORMANCE INSTIGATION ELUCIDATES There are many inputs to the social experience of the service not captured by cost benefit analysis.

Multiple roles are performed by the same sets of people and individuals.

The site has choreographic power over more than the movement of the users.

The service provides excellence or annoyance in parameters never published on forms.

PERFORMANCE INSTIGATION ENGAGES The user as specialist The site as stage The policy as script The design factors as choreography The administrators as score Public policy as backstory Social interaction as character development

PERFORMANCE INSTIGATION PROVIDES Actionable data collected through Human Subject Protocol Alternative modes of analysis of “the numbers” Connections to partner services for specialized data needs A living user survey that is participatory and enjoyable An intriguing and cost-effective marketing campaign

PERFORMANCE INSTIGATION INSPIRES A beginner’s mind about the service A re-invigorated Commons Candid, joy-infused discussion of the service Cross-agency and -silo partnerships Creative ways to enact policy and service shifts

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copyright Anna B. Scott, 2011, all rights reserved

WHAT IS PERFORMANCE INSTIGATION? Every site is a stage. Every service is a brand. Every user is a customer. And any policy is a script. Between these facts resides a shared truth: we perform reality. Often, however, we do not agree on the props, the timing, the rules of engagement, the budget.

Fractured and siloed, we become specialists in our own perceptions, turning cocreators into antagonists, cherished design amenities or policy into sacred cows, inconveniences into gameenders. We quit. We dig in. We battle. We neglect the service; wound the brand.

We get stuck, and stick the public with a dysfunctional service, usually an awardwinning brand, and occasionally a wonderful experience; in other words, a crap shoot. Fixing the “problem� is complicated when the players do not agree on which performance is occurring. Innovation resides in stepping away from the table, out of the fray, and into play.

Performance instigation casts the problems and issues as equal players along side the rules, the users, the slogans, the brand, the service; daring all to step into one show, one event, one reality. Shifting roles, finding solutions.

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copyright Anna B. Scott, 2011, all rights reserved

THE SHIFT Deploying a Performance Instigation delivers results at every phase of design development and performance.

Not only will the data sets come to life but perhaps your symbols, signage, and schedule will, too. Most importantly, it will be an opportunity to enjoy your service from an unexpected perspective right next to all the characters that comprise the show you strive to perform each day.

Performance instigations are engaging ways to split test and review the many tweaks that are a necessary part of maintaining excellence in today’s challenging economic environment. The performers will construct an alternate environment that turns discussion into action: you can pinpoint a needed change or discover excellence in your human resources that you did not know you had.

Administrators will discover that their hands are not tied at all: doing it better can be inspiring. Stakeholders will experience the complexity of the social aspect of the service finding the power of “we.”

Users rediscover the service and the power of their personal knowledge from using it. Future converts following the “wow factor” of a show at a service site will be eager to give it a go.

Finally, the public will participate in real time as “imagineers” of a user-focused experience.

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copyright Anna B. Scott, 2011, all rights reserved

THE SHOW ELEMENTS Document research Signage assessment Facility/site visits Participant observation Review of in-house reports Review of affinity group user boards Selection of issue for story line Script development Deployment of show-specific surround social engagement (blog, Face Book concert page, Twitter) Questionnaire build if requested Selection of back channel service: QR-Codes, text messaging, Four Square, Twitter, Face Book Choreography Costume design engaging architectural choices Musical score Press release Pop-up advance performance if requested Swag developed for marketing INSTALLATION

number of performers dependent on story type & repeating design elements

ADAPTATION We take an existing folk tale, flip it, invert it, remix it to create a conversation between the space, the service, our contemporary moment and the issue.

IP Maintained by VISCERA and/or Dr. Anna B Scott

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READER’S THEATER A transcript from a public meeting or a particularly interesting piece of policy is invigorated through performance IP Placed in Creative Commons for reuse by the public

ORIGINAL & EXCLUSIVE An original work is developed just for your service and brand. Great for a brand launch or service pivot. Includes professional photography and video of event; branded performance interface for audience to use as performers themselves.

IP held by contractor

copyright Anna B. Scott, 2011, all rights reserved