Looking back on Fingerprints at The MAC, Belfast

Documentation of Fingerprints at The MAC, Belfast — 13 March 2026. Video copyright Chris McCann Videography.

On 13 March 2026 we played Fingerprints twice, a matinee and an evening show, in the theatre upstairs at The MAC, Belfast. At the same time, Heidi Nguyen was working live with pairs of musicians in The Crush downstairs. After months of rehearsing, and of building and rebuilding MarkSynth, it was finally happening in front of a room of people.

I was most curious about the very start. As the audience came in, the projection was already alive but quiet, stirred only by feet shuffling and chairs scraping. Some people noticed straight away. Others only gradually realised the wall was listening.

From there it was a real improvisation. The visuals sometimes led and sometimes followed, and I switched between steering hard and letting the room push them around. By the end the performers had gradually disappeared again, leaving a solo violin to carry the last stretch, until only the drawing was left on the wall.

Videos of both shows are on performancefingerprints.com, with stills, audience reactions, the full line-up and the organisations that made it possible.