WHAT IS IT?

“Cool Media Hot Talk Show” is a series of do-it-yourself interactive talk shows, where the public proposes and selects the topics, speakers, questions, and determines the final scenarios of the show, using the project interface on the internet. The live show that results from this public selection takes place at De Balie - Center for Culture and Politics in Amsterdam, and is streamed live via the internet. The public can participate in the live event either by using the web interface or mobile phones: submit and select immediate questions and comments, evaluate speakers’ performance. The system is fully automated: The selection process of proposals and the decision making is based on direct voting by participants. There is no top-down authoritarian mediation and moderation at this level. A moderator will intervene only if the rules of conduct declared at the project’s web site are abused.

1. DE-HIERARCHIZATION OF PUBLIC DISCOURSE MEDIATION

“Cool Media Hot Talk Show” aims at reversing the very format of public discourse provided by mass media, with their “one-to-many” formula, where one journalist, editor, or editorial board decides what, how, and whom to ask, following a prescribed corporate policy. The idea of the “Cool Media Hot Talk Show” is to provide the interface, space and facilities for the public to engage freely and directly into the very process of making public media discourse, following the formulas “many-to-one” and “many-to-many”.

2. BLEND OF MEDIA FORMATS

The title “Cool Media Hot Talk Show” refers to Marshall McLuhan’s concept of "cool media" as media high in participation, while the project itself plays on his idea that “no medium has its meaning or existence alone, but only in constant interplay with other media.” The project combines the popular format of a televised talk show with interactive online and mobile programming tools for the public at all levels of decision making. The live events are based on scenarios developed by the audience and take place in the theatre space of De Balie, while the online audience can follow and participate in the show, using the web interface.

3. OPEN SOURCE TOOLS BUILDING FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN

The interactive tools of the project are based on open source software developed by De Balie. Participants are invited to contribute to its development and use it for their own purposes on specified terms. This software will be made available as an open source release in the Fall of 2007.

4. CHALLENGE FOR PUBLIC PROFILES OF EXPERT COMMUNITIES

The current theme of the experimental series of D.I.Y. talk shows is "on Art & Media". It addresses critical dimensions of ongoing developments in art practice where media technologies are in focus. It is open to everybody interested in questioning the views, ideas, strategies, approaches of artists, curators, theorists, policy makers, critics etc. regarding the relations between art, media technologies, and their context.

JOIN!

We see the “Cool Media Hot Talk Show” project as a work in progress. The tools we are building are ready to use, but at the same time they are also to be tested and evaluated publicly. Participants can directly and indirectly contribute to their adjustment, modification and improvement in the course of the realization of the project. The very model in terms of its structure and logic is the subject of an experimental exploration as well. We are creating the situation and conditions, which we expect can enhance so-called radically democratic forms of public discourse. We are interested in both the advantages and limits of the model we propose. We welcome everybody interested in the exploration, use, appropriation, development and critique of this model.

WHY?

Have you ever been struck by hard questions you would like to ask a public personality, but never had an opportunity to do it? Do we, as the public, have much opportunities to question directly the deeds of the people acting on behalf of the public, and for the public? Or would you like to bring somebody to public attention, who has interesting and important things to speak about, but you are not connected to an institution that can provide such an opportunity? Then “Cool Media Hot Talk Show” can be your chance!