Counterpilot answer our questions ahead of Truthmachine heading to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Truthmachine is a theatrical social experiment in which twelve strangers enter a room and one volunteer will take a working lie detector test as the other eleven become the jury. Connected to a custom-built polygraph system, the volunteer is subjected to a live interrogation while biometric sensors track heart rate, breathing and skin response in real time, converting their body's reactions into a live symphony of light and sound. The jury watches, votes, and decides. In a world of fake news and alternative facts, can your heart rate lie as effectively as our leaders can? We chat to award-winning Australian company Counterpilot about their machine, if truth matters and the man who taught everyone to beat the test.

Audience members can choose whether to volunteer or simply observe. Have you been surprised by how willing people are to put themselves under scrutiny?

We’re always hopeful that people believe in theatre as a magical space where social conventions can be radically reimagined. Often that rings true, and many audiences are too keen to dive outside of their comfort zone. But sometimes it’s surprising which audiences have more volunteers. We once presented Truthmachine for a private corporate event and were shocked that nearly every audience member consistently volunteered for the interrogation - somehow they felt very safe in their workplace? But we did another season for an edgy arts festival where another nearby experience saw audience members getting real tattoos. Somehow the danger felt very real in that context, so the rate of volunteering dropped way down!

Truthmachine uses custom-built polygraph system. Why did you need a bespoke piece of equipment?

When we built the show there were two types of polygraph available for purchase – a cheap plastic toy that felt closer to a magic 8 ball than a scientific instrument; and a very expensive professional kit that assumed the operator had a psychology degree to interpret raw data. We ended up building our own, using the original research papers, a software designer, and some biometric sensors. Building it ourselves meant we could connect the data directly into our technical design, so that everyone in the room (even if they don’t have psychology degrees) can witness what’s happening. In Truthmachine, we all listen to a soundscape generated by the subject’s physiological response – sounds fluctuating in response to their breathing, heartrate and respiration.

Oxford Dictionaries named "post-truth" its Word of the Year in 2016 - what did that mean to you, and for Counterpilot?

There’s something kind of dizzying about the feelings we have here. We’re living in a world where the truth doesn’t seem to matter anymore, or at least its value has been diminished on grand scales. In some ways, that’s terrifying – politically and scientifically, for instance. It’s harder to fight for things that we feel are urgent and right. But on a personal level, there’s also something strangely freeing. Historically, ‘the truth’ has been used to oppress or restrain people but at least ambiguity is more welcoming. Accepting that we can never truly know things for sure also has a sort of calmness to it. But then what is it to accept that we can never truly know ourselves?

The show has now been performed more than 500 times. Has watching hundreds of different volunteers changed your understanding of how people respond when they're asked to tell the truth?

I don’t know if my understanding has been changed, but I’ve really gotten familiar with the rhythms of how people respond to the challenge. For instance, a guilty answer is more about the hesitation than the verbal response – you can see the moment of someone weighing up what it will feel like when they reveal their answer to the room. But also we can recognise the very different relationships people have to the prospect of the test. Someone who is too excited to volunteer will never be interesting – they need a healthy fear of the machine for us to feel that their answers matter.

Do you think there will be a huge difference between Australian and British audiences?

Stereotypes would suggest that maybe British people feel more social stakes around shame, so perhaps the feeling of danger in the examination will be greater? Australians are renowned for not taking themselves too seriously. But I don’t put too much stock in the stereotypes. I’m much more interested in the idea of a fringe audience – which I would characterise as being inherently adventurous, curious, and hopefully ‘up for it!’ I’m also curious about which petty crimes British people have consistently committed – we’ve really noticed some patterns over time with our Australian audiences…

Alongside the live experience, the show explores the history and controversies surrounding polygraph testing. What were the most influential discoveries uncovered during your research for you?

We discovered our hero Douglas Williams, who served jail time in the US for teaching people how to cheat the polygraph test. He was formerly a professional polygraph examiner for US law enforcement agencies but developed a reasonable scepticism about the validity of the tests he was conducting. Douglas quit his job and produced a series of books, websites and video resources to train people in beating the lie detector test. We tell a bit of Douglas’s story in the show, and when we first started staging the work he connected with us on twitter. Sadly, Douglas Williams passed away a few years ago – but his legacy as one of the most enthusiastic and outspoken polygraph critics lives on.

Truthmachine will be performed at various times, up to eight times a day, at C Venues C Alto from 7th – 30th August. Booking link: https://res.cthearts.com/event/34:5337/