Counterpilot is an award-winning collective of interdisciplinary artists directed by Nathan Sibthorpe, with Mike Willmett (sound designer), Christine Felmingham (technical designer), and a constellation of Australian artists, technicians and tinkerers.
Together, we create unique and immersive arts experiences, 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.
By subverting real social circumstances, we co-opt our participants as authentic performers. In this way we are harnessing what we believe to be the most exciting thing about theatre - the live audience. Our works enable participants to observe themselves responding in real ways to hyper-real situations. We seek to provoke refreshed perceptions through acts of trouble, mischief and low-key chaos. We play in the spaces between people, and we poke at the tensions that bind us.
Inspired by traditions of ‘autoteatro’ (automatic instructional theatre), our practice employs new interactive technologies in order to activate audiences with agency, curiosity and play. With interactive tools like geo-locative audio, SMS distribution networks, RFID voting systems, multi-layered video, multi-channel audio, biometric sensors, and AI technologies, Counterpilot seeks to put the audience at the centre of every performance experience – whether it be for physical journeys, experiential narrative, or heightened gameplay.
Counterpilot was originally co-founded in 2014 by Sandra Carluccio and Nathan Sibthorpe as a way of combining their collaborative practices in live art and contemporary performance. Since 2015, Counterpilot have produced more than 16 major works, in partnership with organisations including Metro Arts, Brisbane Powerhouse, Next Wave Festival, Brisbane Festival, Sydney Festival, Darwin Festival, Museum of Brisbane, Adelaide Fringe, and World Science Festival Brisbane. During this time we have received six industry awards and been nominated for at least seven others, including the Lord Mayor’s Award for Best New Australian Work for Crunch Time (2018 Matilda Awards) and The Judges Award for Adrift (2022 Matilda Awards).
We are greatly influenced by national and international companies including Blast Theory, pvi collective, Darkfield, The Last Great Hunt, One Step at a Time Like This, The Border Project, Sandpit, and Il Pixel Rosso.
Our experiences harness a sense of togetherness that perseveres. When all else is lost, we still have each other. Even if just for a moment.
Purpose
To create unique and immersive arts experiences that activate audiences and transform the way we connect with each other.
Mission
To collaborate with contemporary Queensland artists in pioneering new modes of storytelling, and new forms of performance.
Vision
To be a global leader in unique and immersive arts experiences.
The Counterpilot Values
Humanness
We believe people are the most important thing in the room
We put people in the centre of all experiences
We make room for real life, and we lead with empathy
Togetherness
We believe theatre happens in the space between people
We are fiercely collaborative in the ways that we work
We know that transformation is only possible if we do it together
Nowness
We believe in the need for presence
We reject escapism
We trust that authenticity is always more interesting than fiction
Ambitious Experimentation
We believe there is always something more exciting, just out of reach
We are creatively restless and boldly curious
We pursue exciting new ways of doing old things
Trouble-making
We believe good art should cause trouble
We don’t trust answers, but we look for better questions
We seek social change through artful provocation