Artistic conception:
Siegfried Canto, Magali Desbazeille and Valéry Volf
Text: Gilles Leroy
Performance: Valéry Volf
Images and stage design: Magali Desbazeille
Sound: Siegfried Canto
Lighting: Renaud Lagier
Graphic design: Julie Edler
Max/msp jitter programming: Jérôme Tuncer
Set building and lighting engineer: Franck Delâtre
Computer programming: Sébastien Courvoisier
Translation: Maura Pollin
Production: Vincent Eches
Distribution: Licinio Da Costa



Made In Productions
Tel. : 00 33 (0) 01 75 43 17 80
liciniodacosta@madeinproductions.eu
Tel. : 00 33 (0)6 29 83 22 93
vincenteches@madeinproductions.eu
Tel. : 00 33 (0)6 13 50 49 55

ARTISTIC DESCRIPTION

SPY is a trio made up of a protagonist (the performer) and two operators (the sound designer and the image designer). The performance lasts approximately 70 minutes. SPY is a performance for theater, dance, video, and Internet.
Today, 50% of the population of the Western world is connected to Internet. Every month, over 2.7 billion search requests are made on Google. SPY exposes Internet users' desires through the enquiries they make on search engines. Those searches are displayed real-time during the performance.

The stage setting is white, bare. A 4x3m computer screen is centered on the stage, facing forward. The screen is made up of Venetian blinds and positions us between inside and outside. The Venetian blinds are motorized which means that the space can evolve. The protagonist's laboratory and the 2 operators, seated at their work table (audio, video and Web control station), are behind the screen. Their feet are visible; the rest of their bodies are hidden by the screen at the beginning of the performance.

The protagonist expresses himself through live and prerecorded speech, through actions and movements. The protagonist is more than a character in the performance; he is a mediator. What does he seek in his hypnotic observation of other people's desires? What about the audience, a group of potential Internet users, what have they searched recently?

The structure of the Web defines the theatrical form of the performance: Internet searches appear as a constant flow of words projected on the screen. Using pre-identified searches, the protagonist launches sequences involving texts, actions, dance, video and/or sound.

There are two time frames: real time and fictional time. The real-time searches that are displayed are central to the project, like a condensation of other people's desires.

They are also a hidden flow made visible, and the object of considerable economic stakes (among the largest Web companies: Google, Yahoo). The pre-selected searches that are the subject of scenarios alternate with the display of real-time searches. The images, sounds, texts, voice-over effects… are prerecorded.

Texts

The texts were written specifically for SPY.

The protagonist-mediator asks us questions throughout the performance:

"What are you looking for? On the screen, there?
Everyone's looking for something. Everyone.
People look for their keys in their pockets, they look for their cars in parking lots, they look for a spot, they look for an occupation, they look for a job, they look for meaning here on Earth, a place in the sun, they seek fortune, they look for trouble, they look for a way, they search and they search. They look for the solution to a sudoku, they look for solutions to all their problems…"
Gilles Leroy

Prerecorded voices of Internet users are heard throughout the performance. They represent the multiple "I"s and Web experiences.

In counterpoint to Internet users' searches, extracts of documentary texts present the economic and political dimensions of the network.

- Where are the "roots of the Web"? the ones that give a name/identification when you set up a Web site? Is ".fr" really located in France?
- How much do companies bid for the word ? and for and ? A simple click of a mouse by a user costs them between 0.19 and 7.20 euros. Searches (words) are auctioned off and generate substantial revenue.

The sequences deal with issues such as:

- Pornography: This is still the main motivation on the Web. The approach underlines the contrast between the escalating number of videos available (including the strangest possible practices) and the solitary activity of Internet users and their fantasies (voyeurism, onanism in front of the computer). But the traces they leave are tangible. IP addresses are recorded.

- The body: in today's world, a larger and larger majority of professional and leisure activities involve the same posture, the seated position in front of a computer. Given that, how can the performer revive his body? The human body is bruised by technology and its static positions. Physical space is re-dimensioned by stretching and the reactivation of joints; breathing and availability are conquered once again.

Dance is an organic process, in contrast with the position on new technologies. Will he manage to revive his body and his body space in order finally escape and exist In Real Life (IRL)?

Most of the images used come from the Web: extracts from sites, compilations of images, conferences, overlapping elements. Those images are superimposed with real-time images of the protagonist and recorded interviews.

The sound design integrates the project's principles. It articulates, fragments, mixes various elements: the live voice of the performer, voice-over of Internet users, documentary sources: extracts from conferences, interviews, Web site jingles, computer sounds, body sounds, rubbing, breathing…

Documentary sources: extracts from conferences, interviews, Web site jingles, computer sounds, body sounds, rubbing, breathing…

The lighting is based on the computer programming concept of defragmentation and also uses persistence of vision notions. The glare of the lighting cancels out the video projection.

SPY is connected to the Net during the performance and renders symptomatic data visible. The exterior environment comes inside. The project's scenario leaves a margin for unplanned verbal, choreographic and sound elements from the deliberately uncontrolled flow of key words. SPY uses overlapping and superimposed techniques to combine the organic, the intimate and documentary data. Humor and the ambiance contrast with the environment of new technologies. The facts, as they are inserted, create something that is a-political and out of sync.

"What always surprises me most is that sociologists seem to think that using a means of communication could lead to the disappearance of the need for human contact."

Laurent Chemla, 2003

"Pebble" text: live voice and protagonist's avatar voices alternately

I have no imagination because I don't look up "pebble".
I have no vices because I don't look up "latex".
I never look up "little girls".
I have no curiosity because I don't look up "digs", I don't look up "Maldives", I don't look up "Egypt".
I have poor hygiene because I have never done a search on "using bleach to whiten teeth."

Still, my keyboard gets disinfected every Sunday night.
Still, I sometimes take a plane to go to the beach.
Still, I use protection because I love myself. Still, I have dirty ideas.

Still, my heart is as dry as a stone."
Gilles Leroy

Extract from the "Colin Farrell" text:
live voice of the protagonist

"What surprises him is that he spends his days typing his own name on Google. Colin Farrell. He types his name, Colin Farrell, hundreds and hundreds of times every day, every night, looking to see if anyone has written anything about him, anything

new, and of course, he is disappointed, because even world-renowned stars like him don't have something new written every

minute, a new aggression, a new compliment…"
Gilles Leroy

Extract from the text: "the beginning and the end":
the prerecorded voice of the protagonist.

"…they look for a diagnosis for a hyperactive child, they look for the adult prognosis of a hyperactive child, they look for an explanation for depression in babies, they look for an explanation for that pinkish ulceration on the end of the penis, they look for a forum on drug-resistant Chlamydia, they look for tonight's TV program, they look for a hotel, they look for a low-cost ticket, they look for peace, they look for peace and quiet, they

look for a new friend to go rafting with on weekends and maybe more, they look for a sensitive man (and no womanizers, please), they look for an angora cat, a chocolate Labrador puppy, they look for a Russian fiancée, a Filipino handyman, they look for an angora rabbit, they look for a tattooed dog, a pedigreed dog, a

risk-free dog, a trained dog, a hair of the dog, they look for sheep to help them sleep, the sleep of the just, they look for a little peace, they look for a little fresh air, a peaceful sleep, a bit of heaven. Far from words, the joy of those who no longer expect anything."
Gilles Leroy

Production and credits

Production: Made In Productions
Coproduction: TEMPS D'IMAGES 2008 / La Ferme du Buisson, Scène Nationale de Marne-la-Vallée ;
DICRéAM
Residencies: Le Fresnoy - Studio national des Arts contemporains de Tourcoing ;
La Chartreuse de Villeneuve-lez-Avignon ; Centre national des Écritures du spectacle.

Special thanks to the Centre National de la Danse for use of their studio, and to the Associations Artère and Soundpixel for the use of their equipment.

Voices: Emir Azaiez, Paul Barrier, Agathe Berman, Anne Beaumond, Max Cuccarro, Olivier Mansard, Pierre Pollin, Victor Reiltinger-Desbazeille, Lara Suyeux, Kylie Walters.

Thanks to: Clarisse Bardiot, Véronique Bellin, Sandrine Bouchetal, Francis Bras, Alice Chambas, Olivier Cousin, Joseph David, Tom Daniëls, Agnès Fierobe, Elena Fokina, Thomas Fougeirol, Emilie Houdent, Sébastien Kott, Eric Lassalle, Estelle Pagès, Michel Pages, Catherine Perret, Pierre Reitlinger, Alban Rouge, Caroline Schirman, Helder Seabra, Michel Serres, Josette Sultan, Mathieu Tank, Alexandre and Marc Valenti.

The performance SPY presents Internet search requests taken real-time from search engines. Contents are not filtered. Certain images, texts or sounds could offend the audience. Therefore, the performance is not recommended for children.

Réalisation www.media-numerique.com