The Hope Machine (1997)

"The Hope Machine" maps the elision between live work for the screen and screen work for the stage. The dancers glide between the 'black box' of the famous Theatre Royal in Hobart, the empty space of the ruined Church at the Port Arthur Historic Site, the four live screen spaces of 'The Hope Machine' created by Australian visual artist Simeon Nelson, and the multiple screens created by the directors in filming and post production. Backstage, on stage, on set, on camera, in the stream of technology. Hope, pain, fear, exultation. "The Hope Machine" is a contemporary look at the subject of hope with a techno pop edge and a worldly point of view. Choreographed in, on, and around a two story "hope machine" created by Australian visual artist Simeon Nelson, the dancers revel in energy which is the engine of hope. This video dance draws fragments of the real world into its choreography making it a dance on hope which is tinged with melancholy - a not quite convinced, but damn willing to try look at creating hope from the exuberance and daring of dance.