This Will Only Take a Minute

The research circuit, titled This Will Only Take a Minute, was designed as a playful and accessible series of interactive exercises embedded within Alserkal Avenue during the closing weekend of Art Month. Rather than positioning research as a separate or clinical process, the format made participation feel like a natural part of the visit.

Visitors mapped their routes through the Avenue, answered questions over the phone, entered a booth, placed stickers, collected stamps, and shared what they wanted to see more of. The exercises moved across a range of registers, from behavioural to emotional, perceptual, and aspirational, gathering the kind of qualitative, anecdotal responses that reveal not only how people use a space but how they feel within it, what they expect from it, and what they sense is missing.

By keeping the format informal and the exercises non-traditional, participants were able to speak openly and without feeling observed. Drawing on gamification, the circuit introduced a sense of play that encouraged people to move through the exercises with genuine motivation rather than compliance, contributing their reflections without pressure.

Artist-commissioned interventions

To give the research process a visible language within the space, Alserkal Advisory commissioned artist Sarah Elawad to develop the circuit’s spatial graphics and badges. Her interventions extended across the Avenue, generating intrigue for visitors outside the activation space and drawing them towards the circuit through visual and spatial cues.

Once inside, Elawad’s work continued across the research circuit, deepening the sense of participation and tying the experience together. The badges participants collected upon completing the circuit created a connective thread between artistic encounter and the motivation to see the experience through to its conclusion. A DJ set and snacks added to the atmosphere, reinforcing the sense that this was an event to be part of rather than a study to be subjected to.

Natural mechanisms for audience participation

For the insights gathered to be meaningful, the experiment needed to reach people with an established relationship with Alserkal Avenue, whose responses would reflect genuine patterns of engagement rather than first impressions. This shaped both the timing of the pilot and the conditions built around it.

Conducting the experiment during Art Month was a considered choice. The cultural moment provided a natural draw; the Avenue would be populated by regular visitors already oriented towards the kind of engagement the research sought to understand. Rather than sourcing participants in advance, the study worked with the existing rhythms of the district.

A social media campaign, developed in collaboration with Alserkal Avenue, built anticipation amongst the Avenue’s existing audience ahead of the activation. Followers were made aware that something was taking place, seeding curiosity without over-explaining what they would encounter on arrival.

On the day, the environment, the tone of the exercises, and the presence of Elawad’s interventions worked together to create an atmosphere consistent with what regular visitors would expect from Alserkal Avenue: considered, accessible, and culturally attuned. This coherence between the research format and the district’s identity meant that participation felt like a natural extension of the visit.