On 25 April 1997, during the Roelof Kiers Masterclass – organized by the VPRO and the Berlage Institute – 4 new media students the TV format conceived and presented under the working title “School 90210” what has become known as’ BigBrother ‘, ‘The Golden Cage’ and ‘Utopia’.
Below you will find the original presentation back. The presentation is held in English the Dutch texts I translated later.
Roelof Kiers Masterclass
There are a lot of issues that are too abstract to get familiar with. By getting an angle or a point of view that people recognize you can start a dialogue about subjects that they would otherwise ignore.
To do so we come up with an high school where small and big problems will occur but in a much smaller scale. A start set up could be a confession room with a camera and a feedback interface where people can express their problems or ask some questions. The VPRO together with the students and an interactive audience can map the present, history and the development of certain problematics or issues. |
For example a boy in school wants to belong to a group but he is not dressed properly so he is not accepted as a member of that group. |
The VPRO wants to do some researches on that particular problem.
They want to investigate fashion the different dress codes that are involved and the social behavior sorrounding this. |
The VPRO invites some experts, student and other people that have somthing to say about the subject, and the VPRO starts a dialogue by presenting the problem life to the audience. |
The audience (people that watch the program on a regular basis and people that are interested in that particular subject) can react and participate in the dialogue and can add something to the dialogue so the platform of the dialogue will grow. A temporary community could grow surrounding a certain subject. |
This dialog wil have its invluense back on the group and the social behavior. |