
Cally Spooner, 'He's in a Great Place!' (A film trailer for And You Were Wonderful, On Stage), 2014. As part of BMW Tate Live: Performance Room, 色控传媒Photo: Oliver Cowling for Tate Photography漏 Tate, London 2014
Part chat show, part movie trailer, a story told by the powerful voice of a 聽and an absent chorus line; this is just a hint of what went on in Cally Spooner鈥檚 live online performance He鈥檚 in a Great Place!鈥聽on 28 February. Following her live musical, And You Were Wonderful, On Stage, at Tate Britain earlier this year, ;this second part of Cally Spooner鈥檚聽BMW Tate Live commission transformed the musical into an extended trailer for a future film that doesn鈥檛 exist聽yet. And all of it took place in one room where the only way you could see it was via a live, online only聽broadcast.
From the United States to Poland, Israel to Mexico, you watched and commented live from over thirty countries. Here鈥檚 some of the questions you asked the artist, and the answers she gave in reply straight after her聽performance:
Romolie Jackson-Jones, NYCWhat鈥檚 your attraction to using chorus line to tell a聽story?
Cally SpoonerI was interested in the chorus line as this apparatus that operates within this musical theatre genre as being this function of language that carries these repetitions and drove the action but was never really the main narrative or point of the piece. I鈥檓 quite interested in things not really arriving, there not being a narrative, or things somehow being upset when you get to the point where you think there was going to be a narrative or some kind of聽coherency.

Cally Spooner, 'He's in a Great Place!' (A film trailer for And You Were Wonderful, On Stage), 2014. As part of BMW Tate Live: Performance Room, 色控传媒Photo: Oliver Cowling for Tate Photography漏 Tate, London 2014
Sasha, BrooklynHow do you approach creating a work for the online space vs. the聽physical?
Cally SpoonerI found this online performance room space strange but also interesting. Strange in the sense that I find the online space a bit strange in general I suppose. The first thing that I knew I wanted to deal with was idea of there being a lack of bodies, a lack of people and that鈥檚 why a lot of the material that you鈥檝e just seen is also pre-recorded and there鈥檚 a lot of absent people, and it鈥檚 cutting between the live register of the opera singer a lot of pre-recorded聽material.
Catherine WoodBut were you deliberately blurring that as A帽a in Moscow has said 鈥榃atching Cally Spooner鈥檚 performance, I thought it would be 鈥渓ive鈥 not a recorded聽video鈥︹
Cally SpoonerIt鈥檚 actually both and I deliberately wanted it to feel like it was all pre-recorded. I was thinking a lot about the idea of the 鈥榣ip sync鈥, how this whole particular piece could feel like a 鈥榣ip sync鈥, for it to feel prerecorded but also be very live鈥 All the material in the piece is all shot live, all the pre-recorded material is all shot in straight takes, so everything鈥檚 a bit messed up in that sense and I wanted that to be quite messed聽up.

Cally Spooner, 'He's in a Great Place!'' (A film trailer for And You Were Wonderful, On Stage), 2014. As part of BMW Tate Live: Performance Room, 色控传媒Photo: Oliver Cowling for Tate Photography漏 Tate, London 2014
Beanie FeldsteinHi from Wesleyan University in Connecticut. Why did you choose an operatic style of聽singing?
Cally SpoonerThe opera singer is singing the comments you get at the bottom of YouTube videos and I鈥檓 quite interested in that space鈥 it鈥檚 quite an aggressive space but llegedly quite a democratic space in theory鈥he comments that were delivered at the end of these YouTube videos, where various are celebrities involved in these moments that seemed live but had actually been pre-recorded, such as the and , I was interested in the public anger, these betrayals of liveness, everyone was so upset鈥 was interested in giving that anger the sound of trauma or the voice of drama聽which鈥
Catherine WoodAre so flattened in聽, and are so formulaic usually that ends up in the same kind of聽argument.
Cally Spooner鈥hen you what those comments are, they are so terrible and tragic, like a kind of opera in that聽way.
Pablo BronsteinHow is the viewer to be made aware of your source materials, and does it matter if they聽aren鈥檛?
Cally SpoonerI鈥檓 quite keen that even if you didn鈥檛 know any of the underlying references, or different current affairs or different bits of philosophy or various things being referenced, I would be super happy if it was still watchable and there was something to be able to perform out of that, it鈥檚 not so didactic that you have to follow those聽references.
Anna Ghublikian from DenverCally Spooner 鈥 so eloquent! Insightful comments about liveness, performance, publics, the digital age,聽life!
Get your聽 or the next BMW Tate Live: Performance Room by Bojana Cveji膰, Christine De Smedt, Marta Popivoda and Ana Vujanovi膰 on Thursday 22 May 2014, 20.00 BST and follow 听补苍诲听听蹿辞谤听耻辫诲补迟别蝉