In.Love: Reimagining Performance Evaluation Through an Exploration of Participants' Visual Data

• In Event: 60.084 - Roundtable Session 20
  In Roundtable Session: 60.084-18 - Classroom and Qualitative Research in the Arts

Abstract

This presentation will share a unique arts-based research approach to the visual analysis of participant-generated photographs created by audience members during a performance of In.Love, a dance-theatre event inspired by Shakespeare’s As You Like It. The driving research question was how to intercept audience apathy and increase engagement with dense, Shakespearean text through the use of accessible technology media. The play was hosted in a non-traditional performance space, the campus library, and audience-participants were given iPods to respond to prompts sent during the performance. The prompts related to themes within the play, and participants submitted their answers via interpretative photography. The researchers remixed existing methodologies to create a visual analysis process for examining more than 2,300 data points.

Authors

• Marva Cappello, San Diego State University

• Dani Bedau, San Diego State University

• Julie Kendig, San Diego State University

• DJ Hopkins, San Diego State University