This is a fabrication, of course – I’m watching the scene play out in an east London dance studio – but it doesn’t feel miles away from something that could be true. And how do we know what’s the truth anyway? That’s the question in Deepfake, the latest piece from award-winning dance duo Jessica Wright and Morgann Runacre-Temple, AKA Jess and Morgs.
The pair tell modern stories with ambitious tech – film and live camera work – and often techy themes, too. Definitely not one-hit wonders, earlier this year they made their debut at the highly esteemed Paris Opera Ballet. Deepfake is set in a green-screen studio, where the interview is taking place between a cool-headed journalist and a politician.
With writer Jeff James, Jess and Morgs looked at a wealth of TV interviews, from Jeremy Paxman’s 1997 grilling of Michael Howard, where he asked the same question 12 times, to the former prince Andrew’s disastrous turn on Newsnight. They also took inspiration from the current ultra-media-trained politicos who “continually and bombastically evade any questions at all”, says Wright. They liked the way the television interview is already a theatrical setup, says Wright.
In the show, the interview will be filmed live by four cameras – then, as well as seeing what’s happening in reality, the audience will watch another version on screen with background footage edited in. We’ll be privy to the fabrication of the image and a number of possible realities. There are also seven dancers in green-screen suits who manipulate the environment but will disappear in the edit.
As Runacre-Temple says, green screen can actually look quite lo-fi – “It’s got that slightly absurd, playful, silent movie quality about it” – and it’s ancient tech compared with the kind of AI deepfakes that are emerging today. All we have is an enormous studio and two incredible dancers: Rebecca Bassett-Graham, best known for dancing with Wayne McGregor’s company, who is playing the journalist; and as the politician, Kennedy Junior Muntanga, who has worked with Akram Khan. The text plays in voiceover while the two dancers embody and expand on its meaning.
Their quick-fire movements visualise all the dynamics of a charged conversation: charm, challenge, cooperation, accusation, entrapment, etc. The feel is freewheeling, but each movement is tightly mapped to the syllable, every flex of muscle is considered. In certain scenes with the green screen, dancers will have to hit exact marks and even eyelines on exact words “or the whole illusion collapses”, says Wright.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
