Escape Wheel is a two-channel video installation created by Louise Manifold in collaboration with opera singer Elizabeth Hilliard. It was conceived as an opera performance for the Jaquet-Droz Automata, the three celebrated androids which have performed audiences all over Europe over the last 300 years; they are now held at the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire in Neuchâtel. The Jaquet-Droz Automata are among the most acclaimed automatons in the 18th century. Named the Musician, the Draughtsman and the Writer, each automaton performs a creative activity to a mechanical cycle. Built from nearly 6000 parts, the three automata are self-operating and programmable machines, anticipating modern-day programmable computers. Manifold’s work developed from a fascination with the Jaquet-Droz Automata regarded as devices to measure the passage of time, both through their mechanical actions and the audience reaction to them.