The Art of Service
A research project looking into how service design can learn from the performing arts.
In their complexity, services are often described, illustrated and communicated insufficiently by conventional methods. This project was part of the research phase for a publication about service culture, service organisation and service performance. The aim of this project was to gain an insight into the relation between the performing arts and service.
In groups, research was carried out on notation and organisation structures and forms within the performing arts of theatre, dance, film and music.
In conjunction with the research phase, common ways of
transposing the results into the service sector were looked for.
Actor Training
In groups two topics were researched: Art and Religion, and Art and Economy.
The project group then engaged in a two day actor training course, run by Arno Anschauer from the Vienna Film School. During the workshop we did physical exercises which highlighted the importance and impact of personal space and body language. We analysed extracts of film, paying close attention to audio and body language. Our attention was brought to the difference in real time and psychological time as well as structure of a scene.
The Theatre Group
Three groups were formed: theatre, dance, film and music. Each group researched the structure and organisational patterns within their specialism. This included the hierarchical roles of people involved, as well as the structure of communication between these roles.
In the theatre group I took part in conducting interviews with a number of different people involved in theatre, including the assistant director of the Cologne playhouse as well as actors, directors, authors and designers of smaller independent theatres in Cologne and Düsseldorf.
To present findings from the research it was decided to write and act a theatre piece about the different roles involved in theatre.
Transfer: Theatre to Service
How can these systems and codes be implemented in service?
The final stage of the research project was to come up with concepts: - can some of the communication structures and the notation methods used in the performing arts be transferred to the world of service and if so, how?
Some of the concepts inspired from theatre:
> floor markings or a lighting system to guide service personnel through a space in the most efficient way to reach the customer.
> the use of costume to help place service personnel in their ‘role’ as well as defining the roles between the customer and the personnel.
> service personnel have a prompt available to guide them through their ‘script’ (also useful in training).
