During the final semester of Zach's undergraduate at WCSU, the ThinkTank devised a project unlike any other participatory effort we had undertaken before. Instead of staging a show to promote bands, poets or other performers, we undertook unstaged 'shows' to promote the participation of students and others on the WCSU Midtown quad. 

 

We saw many problems that this project offered solutions to. The main problem: students simply did not participate with others on the quad like they had in years past. The quad had merely become a criss-cross of paths to pass through on the way to class, and it was rare to see anyone putting themselves out there musicially, or with a simple game of frisbee, soapbox speaking, or otherwise. Some would read or sit with their phones on nicer days. 

 

We saw 'celebrity' as part of the problem. So many performers seem to picture themselves on-stage, with their name in lights and the floor littered with flyers. What they seem to lack is an awareness of what does and does not encourage the participation of others. 

 

Our solution is the unstaged show. We figured - "let's lower the stage and raise the audience", so to speak. If the performer feels more obliged to the audience, and the audience feels more valued by the performer, maybe they'd participate more together. 

 

Here's a concise explanation of our methods.. Everyday between noon and 2 p.m., a team member would observe the quad and score what they saw. Participation was scored in four levels; overall opportunities, people remaining stationary, engaging others, and performing. The intricacies are more complex than a concise explanation can offer, here. However, our results were astounding!

 

In comparison to the highest rates of participation on control/observation days, our days of show were observed as experiencing a roughly 300% increase in people stopping to watch, ~50% increase in engagement of others, and ~100% increase in measureable performance (aka people participating)!