Running Machine

The premiere of Running Machine was presented as part of BLEED — a biennial live event exploring contemporary performance across physical and digital platforms.

Running Machine is an interdisciplinary work created by a team of Australian and Japanese artists, considering visible and invisible labour. Choreography, dramaturgy, sculpture and digital elements work in sync to conjure a world that is shifting, unstable and constantly surprising. Expectations are constructed and then subverted as the familiar limits and meanings of the human body begin to crumble beneath us.

Audiences move through video projections of shifting scale, making their own way through the interior of the work itself. A treadmill runs persistently, the pace-maker at the heart of work. Running Machine undermines the traditionally transactional contract between audience and artwork: the artists use subtle directives, nonverbal communication and soft cues to produce active situations and invite interactions. The audience-artist relationship becomes an affective mirror, each side informing the other.

Originally developed in Fujiyoshida, Running Machine has emerged from interactions with specific sites in both Japan and Naarm. Mountains, empty streets and found objects interact with the visual and conceptual palette of the work to reshape both cities and the natural landscape.

Media Artist
Sam McGilp

Dancer / Choreographer
Harrison Hall

Dancer / Choreographer
Yuiko Masukawa

Costume / Dancer / Choreographer
Geoffrey Watson

Set and Lighting Design
Makoto Uemura

Sculptor
Kazuhiko Hiwa

Performers
Geoffrey Watson, Yuiko Masukawa, Harrison Hall, Sam McGilp, Kazuhiko Hiwa, Makoto Uemura

Sound Mix
Shio Otani

Lead 3D Animator
Luca Dante

AI Motion Capture
Jamal Knight

Translation
Yumi Umiumare, Ai Yamamoto, Tomohiro Matsuoka

Producer
Erin Milne

Associate Producer
Xavier O’Shannessy

Produced by
Bureau of Works

Running Machine was commissioned and produced by Arts House, City of Melbourne, as part of BLEED 2022.

This project was supported by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its principal arts funding and advisory body; the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria; the City of Melbourne through Arts House; and Dancehouse, through their On Residence program at Garambi Baan.

2026 Development

In January 2026, Running Machine underwent a new phase of development at Toyohashi Arts Theatre (Japan).

This development expanded the spatial, technical, and performative dimensions of the work, building on the original 2022 premiere and responding to the architecture, resources, and cultural context of Toyohashi. The process focused on deepening the relationship between live bodies, digital systems, and audience movement within the space.

Development Support (Japan & Australia)

Japan
主催：公益財団法人豊橋文化振興財団
共催：豊橋市
助成：文化庁文化芸術振興費補助金
　　　劇場・音楽堂等機能強化推進事業
　　　（地域の中核劇場・音楽堂等活性化事業）
　　　独立行政法人日本芸術文化振興会

Australia
This development was assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body.