A game of mass participation for anyone willing to help...

An interactive multimedia installation for public spaces.

Bad things are happening, and our heroes are at risk! From hungry sharks to deadly laser beams, danger is imminent and the only person who can stop it is you!

Designed to activate large, outdoor public spaces over several hours per night, spectators bear witness to a series of increasingly whimsical and perilous predicaments. It's up to the audience of gathered bystanders to save our ensemble of delightful cartoon heroes, by rallying support and sending crucial key words from their smartphones.

Avoidable Perils is a new social experiment for anyone willing to help, made by Australia's genre-defying transmedia theatre collective Counterpilot. A game for the masses, this work explores activism in the attention economy, and the challenge of large-scale teamwork.

With inspiration spanning global rallies, online petitions, crowdfunding and democratic elections, Avoidable Perils combines gorgeous original animation with interactive game-play to explore the challenge of sweeping social cooperation towards a 'greater good'. It's a joyful and surprising game to be played by entire communities, and suitable for all-ages.

Avoidable Perils was created at the height of Australia's COVID-19 pandemic and designed for a socially-distanced future.

Premiere Seasons at Darwin Festival and Brisbane Festival 2020.

Venue Format
Outdoor
Technical Rating
B
Touring Party
2
Considerations

Avoidable Perils has been designed with many different outdoor presentation options in mind, as presenters navigate ever-shifting restrictions and resources.

The work is intended for large-scale projection onto buildings or other highly visible areas in bustling public spaces. However, alternative delivery options include presenting the work on digital billboards or other screens.

METRO ARTS

Metro Arts is developing the future of Australian contemporary arts practice, now.

Championing all contemporary art forms, the two core activities of the organisation are developing and co-presenting contemporary arts.

Company Website
metroarts.com.au

Unique Selling Point

Avoidable Perils is a distinctive new artwork which offers enviable place-making potential. The work illuminates and utterly transforms a seemingly familiar public space; re-igniting imagination and inspiring audiences to form new, creative relationships with their daily environments.

In a cultural landscape exhausted by screen fatigue and restrictions on indoor performance spaces, Avoidable Perils stands out as a refreshing, participatory arts experience where audiences are literally in control of the experience.

The work includes a companion website (www.avoidableperils.com) where fans can follow the plight of our cartoon heroes from afar, including a live scoreboard displaying the community's efforts to date.

Marketing Materials

Comprehensive marketing materials available including:

  • text copy
  • images (original illustrations and production shots from previous seasons)
  • video (original animated content)
  • social media assets (including images and video designed for specifically for social media platforms)

Community Engagement

Metro Arts and Counterpilot can discuss the ambitions of your community to create bespoke engagement opportunities.

These may include workshops for artists exploring Counterpilot's particular approach to transmedia storytelling, or more long-term collaborations with community groups to create an original cartoon superhero character to be featured exclusively when the work is presented at your venue.

Bespoke community engagement opportunities will be subject to additional fees, determined in collaboration with the presenter.