Flickr SlideShow provided by Los Angeles World Airports PR department.
http://flyawaybus.tumblr.com/
http://www.facebook.com/bout.to.get.on
http://www.ulule.com/bout-to-get-on/news/
The development and performance of 'Bout To Get On has generated an immersive, bridging structure for disparate (often antagonistic) groups to communicate and ultimately collaborate more effectively: PI: Performance Instigation. Performance instigating casts the problems and issues as equal players along side the rules, the users, the providers, the slogans, the brand, the service; daring all to step into one show, one event, one reality. With a newly inquisitive mind, people seek out each other to create mutual understanding of the performance event and their roles in it.
Though declared dead several times from 2003 to 2007, dance flash mobs continue to be active on the social landscape, inextricably tied to advancements in hand held media devices. Like gamification for daily tasks, choreography for the dance flash mob formulates the choice for the participant--these are not solos, they are actually not spontaneous, nor are they improvisational. They are not stories, but they do some of the work of a good tale. They extract sentiment and build surplus value through repetitive action that never quite receives its stated reward: social change through socializing.
With 'Bout To Get On, rather than completely displace the bus rider, ignore the service provider or attempt to purely entertain either of them, we chose instead to engage them through multiple channels, show them some of the parameters of the performance, and co-create a "final production." To make that possible required hours of ethnographic research, multiple quick interviews with staff (we were instructed not to bother them, but hey, how else can you get data on a site if you don't ask the staff), and analysis of the service including the ways that the signage does and does not function. PI documents as it delights, delivers actionable data as it dramatizes. Have a look at a portion of the show.
