An explain article

Staging interaction and scenography

With this, Hans Platschek refers to art, to paintings and sculptures. At events – marketing events, conferences, or trade shows – we would be lost without virtual elements as part of presence, of presentation. Three-dimensional is shown two-dimensionally. However, usually in a three-dimensional space. We experience this at general meetings and product presentations, in the country pavilions of the World Expos and at festivals, at specialist conferences, and trade fair participations.

Not only the speakers and their presentations are very much in focus. The locations of their performances are increasingly becoming a subject of support, amplification, authenticity proof, or activation. This is generally evident in the development of event spaces: the number of event locations is growing more than that of congress halls or conference hotels. Purpose-built is indeed functional, sober, and factual – whereas "special" offers what not only quantitatively gives us space for event design but also qualitatively. The material presence of an image is not transportable.

Katharina Stein, who keeps a finger on the pulse of events with her eveosblog, explains the proximity of live communication to people (in their role as participants, visitors, guests) through understanding via the senses. Smelling, feeling, tasting, hearing, seeing – preferably all – should be used. This gives space a place as a supplier of sensory impressions. The attribution of meaning is obvious: space as an element of event design is a potential multi-sensory emitter. An event without space does not exist. Every space influences the event and the people within it, whether designed consciously or not. This reminds us of Paul Watzlawick and his "One cannot not communicate!". This also applies to events and their experiential spaces in the sense of "One cannot not design!".

Scenography is dedicated to this exact challenge. It is the theory or art of staging in space. We know scenography from theater, film, and fine arts, as well as from museums. What was once confined to the classic stage design is now generally found as non-verbal communication – in the form of application- or project-specific staging of spaces. The relevance of the real three dimensions for emotional encounters of people with companies, brands, or products has been visualized by artist Maurizio Nannucci in one of his neon works: It shows the essence of events in the form of three attributes and lights our way with "Events Take Place – Events Take Time – Events Take Space" They take place, take time, and require space!

So-called performative spaces are embedded in a dialogue – or platform for a dialogue. An exchange arises with bodies. These can be both exhibits and speakers, moderators, performers. They engage in dialogue with the space they are in, into which they are brought or from which they are removed. Since modern event formats always also stage the visitor or participant as an actively participating element, this also applies to this body. Another dialogue partner is time – the dimension of chronology in the dialogue. We almost all know such scenes from an event: walls open, products become visible and turn towards the audience, along a timeline everything seems in motion. This happened at an event that I remember well (and thus has a lasting effect!):

After the greeting by the CEO and a brief film sequence about the key innovations of the new vehicle, the grandstand along with the guests seated on it turns towards the main event – the new sports car (which had not yet been visible until then!).

A fundamental construct for the design of events is the narrative.

The story serves not only as a common thread but as a content provider and completion-maker, used for a consistently staged event, a narrative space. It reappears when a story is actually strategically planned and implemented. A spatial arrangement shows the object groups designed according to the thematic structure. Where do the guests sit or stand? Where does the speaker appear? At which point are the products presented? And where do we move during the event break?

The narrative space demands a dialogue of the objects, the arrangement makes this possible – or even enforces it. The previously mentioned time dimension stands for movement patterns and lines of sight in the narrative space. There is a conscious intention to emphasize and thus strengthen an existing thematic relationship. Moreover, a narrative space can offer stories within a story. From the founding of a company to the new product. From the regional position to the role as a global player. From stagnation to market leadership. The space may stand alone as the narrator before the guests – increasing the attention for the keynote speaker's or board member's speech.

Modern event formats involve participants, putting them in an active role. Thus, we find participation as real, genuinely meant involvement, interaction as action mostly between groups or hierarchies, and collaboration as co-creative joint creation. The space then becomes a workshop, stage, laboratory, and at the same time showroom. It significantly supports by providing areas for the respective task. It is especially comprehensible here how important what Christian Mikunda describes as the Third Place is: A feel-good atmosphere that lets us perceive the space as a temporary home.

Spaces are always the subject of the overall dramaturgy: as a component in the sequence of events, as a design element in the spatial-temporal structure, as a place for rituals and as a place of symbolically occupied communication. They can support or hinder by creating attention – or distraction! They can be significant or irrelevant – determined essentially by the goals of an event, which may require authenticity or neutrality.

Strong support with high relevance is analyzed by Mikunda in his current book Hypnoaesthetics. A staging of spaces that is intended to put us in a trance-like state. Confusion, dissolution, redemption – in this sequence, the horizon of expectation is initially destabilized to then provide relief through subsequent stabilization.

We don't have to go that far. Let's start by avoiding pointless decorations (in professional jargon, the plant next to the speaker is called stage vegetable), supporting the speaker with high-quality visualization at the right places in the room, creating attention and experience areas for guests instead of row-seated short-term sleeping places (perhaps in the style of talk shows or the Shakespearean Globe Theatre), and include the room as an element of event design early in our considerations.

"Form follows function" (and thus: the space is oriented to the task of the event) is always correct when we can freely determine it. However, for events, we often have the space as an already set factor. Then the content or tasks must be oriented towards it. Which in some cases can indeed lead to successful, exciting, and long-lasting effects of events.

Stefan Luppold