Lying… We’re all guilty of it at some point in our lives. We lie to our bosses, our best friends, our loved ones. Perhaps we even lie to ourselves. But just how good a liar are you? Good enough to beat a machine?
Making its world premiere at the Adelaide Fringe ‘TRUTHMACHINE’ is an interactive experience which explores the concept of truth and its place in our modern 'post-truth world'. With newsfeeds increasingly full of fake news and conflicting information, can we trust the media to tell us the truth? What about our world leaders? Can we trust ourselves?
Designed for a maximum of nine participants ‘TRUTHMACHINE’ sees one willing volunteer hooked up to a custom designed polygraph machine and interrogated in front of an intimate audience of their peers. During the 20 minute production the participant’s heart rate, breathing patterns and skin responses are monitored by high tech sensors which emit low frequency sounds that change when the participant is suspected of lying.
I’m not going to lie, I attended this event in the hopes I would be chosen to be strapped to the polygraph machine and given that the session I attended on 20 February only had a total of three audience members I felt I had a pretty good chance. So you can imagine my disappointment when another audience member was chosen; but as the interrogation continued I began to wonder if maybe that was a good thing.
Some of the questions asked were surprisingly personal and there were times when I felt embarrassed for the poor soul having to answer them. But the young man in question remained incredibly calm throughout the production (perhaps a little too calm) and as the show drew to a close I found myself wondering whether he was truly chosen at random.
The RCC Fringe is made up of a series of performance spaces spread throughout the University of Adelaide’s North Terrace grounds and for those unfamiliar with the University’s layout finding your way can be confusing. There was surprisingly little signage around and it took several minutes of aimless wandering for me to find WP Rogers (which, for those hoping to attend future shows is a small room tucked away next to the UniBar at the back of the campus) so allow yourselves plenty of travel time.
Definitely a unique experience, ‘TRUTHMACHINE’ raises some interesting questions.
