COUNTERPILOT
ABOUT COUNTERPILOT
Counterpilot is a collective of interdisciplinary artists directed by Nathan Sibthorpe and including Christine Felmingham (technical designer), Clinton Freeman (software designer), Mike Willmett (sound designer) and Sarah Winter (production designer).
Together, they create interactive performance works, activating audiences with new technology, rich design, and transmedia storytelling. Counterpilot seeks to transform the familiar, juxtaposing rich fictional worlds against a backdrop of the everyday.
Their works boldly experiment with new applications of technology, including 3D printing and digital media. With interactive tools like geo-locative audio, SMS distribution networks, RFID voting systems and biometric sensors, Counterpilot seeks to put the audience at the centre of every performance experience – whether it be for physical journeys, experiential narrative, or heightened gameplay.
Website & Social Media
counterpilot.com.au
facebook.com/counterpilot
instagram.com/counterpilot_
twitter.com/counterpilot
TRUTHMACHINE by Counterpilot
Would you take a lie detector test with a stranger?
TRUTHMACHINE is the multi-award winning new social experiment from techno-trouble makers, Counterpilot.
Using real biometric sensors and live voting systems, TRUTHMACHINE seeks out truth in a world of fake news and alternative facts. The polygraph machine used to be regarded as a legal instrument, but today we think we can cheat. Let’s see if your heart rate can lie as effectively as our leaders can.
Blurring the line between cutting edge technology and live performance, TRUTHMACHINE is an intimate, playful and intriguing theatre experience for adventurous audiences.
REVIEWS
“Genius…The technology is state of the art” – Broadway World
“a truly atmospheric experience” – This is Radelaide
“Definitely a unique experience” – Scenestr
“an enigmatic live art conspiracy…no one else is making work quite like this” – The Age
AWARDS
Best Film, Digital & Interactive Work – Adelaide Fringe 2019
Hong Kong Tour Ready Award – Let’s Be Together Arts Festival
SA Tour Ready Award – Melbourne Fringe
Adelaide Fringe Innovation Grant – Adelaide Fringe 2019
KEY CREATIVES
Nathan Sibthorpe – Director
Mike Willmett – Sound Design
Clinton Freeman – Software Design
Christine Felmingham – Technical Design
John Felmingham – Technical Design
Sarah Winter – Production Design
Paige Poulier – Performance
Toby Martin – Additional Collaborator
Sean Dowling – Additional Collaborator
UPCOMING SEASONS
Let’s Be Together Arts Festival | Hong Kong | August 2020
+ more to be announced soon!
PAST SEASONS
Sydney Festival | Carriageworks, Sydney, NSW | 11 – 24 January 2020
Melbourne Fringe | Trades Hall, Melbourne, VIC | 22 – 29 September 2019
Brisbane Festival | Theatre Republic, Brisbane, QLD | 10 – 21 September 2019
Horizon Festival | The Events Centre, Caloundra, QLD | 26 – 27 August 2019
Adelaide Fringe | RCC Fringe, Adelaide, SA |19 February – 3 March 2019
CRUNCH TIME by Counterpilot
Crunch Time is a performative dinner party designed to model the processes of democracy. Seated around a projector-mapped dining table, participant diners use interactive tools to vote for every ingredient used in an elaborate meal.
Viewed via live-feed video from a nearby kitchen, a guest chef prepares real food in response to demand. But we’re not using master chefs here – instead, each performance will nominate individuals from public positions of leadership. Politicians, artistic directors and CEOs will take their turn to cook up requests from the dining room with dangerously unpredictable results.
Lately, politics has been leaving a bad taste in our mouths. The popular vote can be hard to swallow, but at the end of the day – we’ve all got to eat…
Co-commissioned by Metro Arts & Next Wave Festival.
KEY CREATIVES
Nathan Sibthorpe – Director
Christine Felmingham – Technical Design
Mike Willmett – Sound Design
Clinton Freeman – Software Design
Sean Dowling – Graphic Design
Craig Wilkinson – Animations
Jeremy Gordon – AV Programming
John Felmingham – Construction & Contraptions
Lauren Jackson – Voice Performance
Cam Clark – Project Collaborator
Toby Martin – Project Collaborator
Benjamin Knapton – Dramaturgy
PAST SEASONS
Norman Price Theatre, TAFE QLD | Metro Arts | Brisbane, QLD | 5 – 15 December 2018
Darebin Arts & Entertainment Centre | Next Wave Festival | Melbourne, VIC | 3 – 12 May 2018
ADRIFT by Counterpilot
IN DEVELOPMENT
A new transmedia work by Counterpilot, ADRIFT explores themes of loneliness, isolation, and our relationship with nature in the face of a potential mass extinction event.
Set in an ambiguous global flood, strangers find themselves isolated and adrift. They are guided by immersive audio design to find each other in the darkness. Together, they collaborate to uncover a series of true stories, co-creating detailed worlds by manipulating objects and filling in blanks in each others’ narratives.
ADRIFT explores our real feelings of loneliness in the context of disconnected communities and the threat of irreparable climate change.
We feel alone in a world that crumbles beneath us.
Our relationship with nature is just as fraught as our relationships with each other.

KEY CREATIVES
Nathan Sibthorpe – Director
Christine Felmingham – Technical Designer
Mike Willmett – Sound Designer
Clinton Freeman – Software Designer
Sarah Winter – Production Designer
UPCOMING DEVELOPMENTS
Creative Development | Metro Arts | Brisbane, QLD | November 2020
Creative Development | Bundanon Trust | Ilaroo, NSW | November 2020
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Counterpilot are produced by Metro Arts.
Crunch Time was supported by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body. Crunch Time was proudly supported by Brisbane City Council. The Creative Sparks Fund is a partnership between the Queensland Government and Brisbane City Council to support local arts and culture in Brisbane. Crunch Time was supported by Lynn Rainbow Reid AM and John B Reid AO. Crunch Time was co-commissioned by Next Wave and Metro Arts.
Truthmachine was supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland, part of the Department of Environment and Science. Truthmachine was supported by the Adelaide Fringe Artist Fund via the Adelaide Fringe Innovation Grant.
Adrift is developed with the support of Metro Arts and Bundanon Trust.