For our generation, as for all generations to come, the development and flourishing of our digital lives was concurrent with our physical lives. Maybe though, we are one of the last generations to inherit a sense of distinction between these worlds.

Running Machine is a work that has been developed over the past two years, across borders and in translation. This process has required us to slow down and listen. This receptive, slow pacing is at odds with our current digital culture, and is something that we want to bring to this work.

The lead artists for Running Machine are a heterogeneous group from different countries, experiences and abilities, and so our act of creating this hybrid live/digital work has been an act of defining practices and models for a more inclusive vision of the hybrid world to come.

我々世代、いや、これからの全ての世代にとって、デジタルライフはより進化し華やかな物となるだろう。だが、同時に生身での生活もそこにはある。 おそらく、我々がその２つの世界での過ごし方に違いを見出せる最後の世代なのかもしれない。 〈ランニングマシン〉は、国境を越え言葉の壁を越えて、これまで2年の月日を費やして制作してきた。ゆっくりと時間をかけ、耳を貸すという事が必要な作業だった。このゆっくりと受け入れていくというのは、我々の今のデジタル文化には似合わないものだったが、それこそが、この作品に込めたい想いだったのだ。 ランニングマシン’を主導するアーティスト達は国も経験してきた事も専門分野も違う混成チームである。だからこそ、このライブ/デジタルアートワークを作成した方法は、ライブ/デジタルの未来がより包括的になる方法を示すのである。

Yuiko Masukawa
Yuiko Masukawa is a Japanese choreographer based in Melbourne, working with the classical form in contemporary contexts. In 2019, she was awarded an Ian Potter Cultural Trust Grant to undertake a series of structured choreographic secondments with the New York City Ballet, Milwaukee Ballet and Japanese contemporary choreographer, Toru Shimazaki. She was recently selected to participate in Dancehouse’s Emerging Choreographers Program throughout 2021 as well as Lucy Guerin Inc and Phillip Adams BalletLab’s new showcase program Out of Bounds. In 2021, she received funding from Creative Victoria and the Besen Family Foundation for her second development for After Party, an audio-visual installation with retired ballet dancers. In 2022 her new work “Why we are who we are” will be presented at the Bowery Theatre supported by the Be Bold Residency and Sidney Myer foundation.

Sam Mcgilp
Sam Mcgilp is a media artist working collaboratively in contemporary performance contexts, based on Wurrundjeri country in Naarm. His work spans film, performance, installation and online spaces. In 2020, he created BONANZA! with Harrison Hall and Juzzy Kane as part of Chunky Move's Activators Program, which was screened at the Melbourne International Film Festival in 2021 and was selected as a finalist for the Green Room Awards. In 2019, he was awarded an Australia Council professional development grant to undertake residencies at Kinosaki International Art Centre and Do-So Residency, Fujiyoshida. In 2021 he received a Creative Victoria Creator's Fund grant to investigate how emerging technologies can create new dramaturgies for performance that centre the body.

Harrison Hall
Harrison Hall is a Choreographer, Performer and Digital Artist who’s work situates contemporary performance and dance in experiential art environments. With recent works traversing states of flux between the digital and physical realms utilising new technologies to augment and abstract the body. In 2020, he was awarded a Solitude1 Residency from Chunky Move and the Tanja Liedtke foundation in which he created Maelstrom alongside Luca Dante, a multi-channel digital choreography installation premiering at MARS Gallery (Melbourne) and Metro Arts (Brisbane) in late 2021. Through Chunky Move, he also presented BONANZA! with Sam Mcgilp, a PerformancexDialogue media artwork that included conversations with NAXS corp (Taiwan) and Lu Yang (China). This work was a 2021 Green Room Award Finalist and selected for the Melbourne International Film Festival 2021.

Kazuhiko Hiwa
Creating as "hiwadrome", Kazuhiko Hiwa makes video works on the theme of physicality and installation works using a wheelchair, which he himself uses. In addition, through "play", a direct intervention in the public, he performs and makes work that questions various boundaries, relationships, and accessibility. Recent exhibitions include "Kanon : Kazuhiko Hiwa + Shiyoko Hiwa” (Taro Okamoto Memorial Museum /2020), "ARTISTS' FAIR KYOTO 2021" (The Museum of Kyoto /2021), "Ripples in Water 2021" (Triangle Park, Former Minato Ward Children's Museum / 2021), "Drawing Experiment 01 (Watari-Um Museum, On-sunday's /2021)".

Makoto Uemura
Makoto Uemura is a director and lighting designer for contemporary performance based in Tokyo, Japan. His work focuses on giving voice to the memory of site and context while expanding the frame of the theatre through collaborations with musicians, choreographers, artists. He undertook undergraduate studies at the Faculty of Art and Design, Nagoya Zokei University, as well as a research degree investigating Advanced Art Expression at the graduate School of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts. Since graduating he has worked as a director and lighting designer for contemporary performance and a researcher at Tokyo University for the Arts’ Performing Arts Centre. Recent works include: ”Egmont" (Tokyo University of the Arts Sogakudo / 2021), "Blind Letter 2020" (online / 2020), and the exhibition "Unmanned Theatre Festival" (Nakamachi no Ie / 2019).

Media Artist: Sam Mcgilp
Digital Choreographer: Harrison Hall
Dancer/Choreographer: Yuiko Masukawa
Set and Lighting Design: Makoto Uemura
Sculptor: Kazuhiko Hiwa
Performers: Geoffrey Watson, Yuiko Masukawa, Harrison Hall, Sam Mcgilp, Hiwa Kazuhiko and Makoto Uemura
Sound Mix: Shio Otani
Costume: Geoffrey Watson
Lead 3D Animator: Luca Dante
AI Motion Capture: Jamal Knight
Translator: Yumi Umiumare, Ai Yamamoto and Tomohiro Matsuoka
Producer: Erin Milne
Associate Producer: Xavier O’Shannessy

Produced by Bureau of Works

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body; the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria; the City of Melbourne through Arts House; and by Dancehouse through their On Residence program with a residency at Garambi Baan.

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

BLEED (Biennial Live Event in the Everyday Digital) was conceived by Campbelltown City Council through Campbelltown Arts Centre, and The City of Melbourne through Arts House. BLEED 2022 is produced and presented by Campbelltown City Council through Campbelltown Arts Centre, and City of Melbourne through Arts House, Taipei Performing Arts Centre and Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei. BLEED has been supported by the Taiwan Ministry of Culture and Cultural Division, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Sydney.