Myriorama

Myriorama is a performance that takes place simultaneously on the street and in a theatre. Inspired by a short story by Italo Calvino, Un re in ascolto (A King Listens), the Myriorama project holds the audience captive in a transparent tent while a dancer circulates around it. Meanwhile, on the street, a roamer/performer sends (SMS) text messages describing the geography he sees along the way. The content of these messages is integrated (via GPS) into a map that indicates the roamer’s position and is projected onto the tent. Finally, the projected images are manipulated and transformed in real time through our system of sensors by the movements of the dancer as he circles the tent. This is the way the dancer attempts to watch over, manipulate, and dominate his environment, like the king of Calvino’s story.

Questioning the fact that our cities and private lives are infiltrated by a variety of positioning and surveillance systems (frequently used for monitoring and spying), we have taken the cell phone, the GPS, and the sensor system and given them an artistic function. In creating a work from these forms of representation, we also wanted to place certain performance conventions into perspective. How can we go beyond the physical limits of theatre? How can we integrate an urban trajectory into a theatrical space?