Deepfake Booth

Carré is one of the oldest theatres in the Netherlands, and fewer and fewer young people come to its shows. The brief asked for a lasting concept with an interface, a physical part and a digital part. A one-off event was not enough, and the concept could not disturb the show or other visitors.

I studied the target group with a day-in-the-life exercise, interviews with Instagram users and research into Carré’s own channels. Young people spend much of their free time online, and many of them like the vintage look Carré already has. That gave me a direction: reach them on social media and keep the old Carré atmosphere.

Three ideas came out of the research: a photo booth with deepfakes, an Instagram photo wall with vintage props, and a Carré filter you can only unlock with a QR code inside the building. I chose the photo booth. Deepfakes were spreading fast on Instagram, and the booth gives visitors something to share that only exists because they went to Carré.

The booth, called Theatrical Moment, stands in the corridor every visitor walks through. You tap to start, pick your favourite moment from tonight’s show, and the camera asks you to show a few emotions. Shortly after, the booth plays the scene with your face in it, and you can post it to Instagram under a shared hashtag.

It only offers scenes from the show you saw, so every new visit gives you new moments to play with.

After feedback I brought the start screen closer to Carré’s house style, split watching and sharing into separate screens, and swapped the bright red background for a calmer one.

The pandemic started during the testing phase, so I could only test with people at home instead of the real target group. The next step would be testing with young theatre visitors whether they know what a deepfake is and whether the booth makes them want to come.