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

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 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

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