debatehead

Debatehead is a series of debates involving the public in a contemporary and more casual art-bar/club atmosphere. By providing an alternative forum for something that is too often seen as stymied and formal, we want to promote an event where the public would be encouraged and inspired to share their experiences, ideas, research and expertise in a casual environment.

Philosophers, media scholars, politicians, public figures and citizen activists have all registered concern for the health of the public sphere in environments dominated by mass mediated news programming, production and coverage. Debatehead intends to perform a possible alternative to throwing up our hands and saying “ah, what can we do about it”.

While incorporating a dj and images from a variety of contemporary news sources, Debatehead provides a forum for an open, honest, critical debate of an issue, outside of the atmosphere of competition and one-upmanship that characterizes academic debating and political stumping. Debatehead will reveal a middle ground between passive reception of information and dogmatic rationalization of one’s own opinion by performing that middle ground in front of an audience.

By promoting debates with this kind of contemporary vibe, we will be encouraging a forum and dialogue with the public that we feel is currently lacking in the media, and what should be an informed democracy.

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