WILL THESE HANDS
NE’ER BE CLEAN?
Experience Installation DesignWho is worse: You or Macbeth?
Will These Hands Ne’er Be Clean? is an experience design installation designed for Carnegie Mellon School of Drama’s 2024 production of Macbeth, adapted (by myself) for a cast of 6 femme and non-binary identifying performers. The installation was designed to challenge audiences perception of Macbeth’s evil, prompting questions regarding masculinity, humanity, and distance from the classic text.
The installation’s design was inspired by the play’s hand motif, partly by the play’s poster—the sheer 18 ft. tall size served as intriguing marketing—and by a line from Lady Macbeth’s descent into madness: “What, will these hands ne’er be clean?”
Time: 10 weeks
Role: Designer, Implementation
Advised by: Dr. Ryan Prendergast
The installation’s dimensions were 18 ft. x 5 ft. x 6 ft. The hand’s interior booth with built with wood, covered in white muslin—utilizing over 50 yards of muslin.
Inside the hand, audience members were invited to anonymously confess an evil deed they had committed. After submitting their confession, they reached into a box and received a previous audience member’s confession, written in invisible ink—echoing a motif from the play. The hidden message could only be revealed under UV light inside the hand; after exiting the hand, the evil was unseen, perhaps similarly to Macbeth’s.
After 4 performances, 75+ people entered and engaged with the hand. Some of the most common “evil deeds” were cheating on partners, stealing, and lying.
Show of Hands
To keep the audience engaged and the installation open, even when there was no facilitator inside, I launched Show of Hands, a mobile-microsite accessible via QR code, where visitors to the Purnell lobby could see anonymous confessions of evils at any time.
The mobile site recieved over 400+ impressions.