Télé-Choc Télé-Change

Fred Forest set up an experimental participatory programme in 1975 on the second national television channe: A2.

Always driven by the spirit of participation, the artist convinced Michel Lancelot, presenter and producer of a major programme called "Un jour futur", to work with him on three successive experiments, each taking up two hours of his programme. At the time, Michel Lancelot was in the media's favour following the success of his Campus programme on Europe 1. His profile corresponded exactly to those that Fred Forest had identified as possible partners, and in truth there were never very many institutions willing to take risks with him. Once again, his flair did not fail him, and Michel Lancelot accepted his idea, which many people thought was crazy, to offer him almost six hours of programming in an attempt to carry out an experimental project which, as his assistant Sylvie Marion pointed out on air, had never been attempted before in France...

The artist's innovative idea was to open up a live remote exchange of objects with the audience, with viewers present on the set. At the time, it's worth remembering that the Internet wouldn't exist for another twenty years, until 1995. And the exchanges took place solely via a national company called SVP, which specialised in, among other things, large numbers of telephone contacts.

Three programmes are initially scheduled:

• First programme:
  The launch of the operation https://youtu.be/tItouf3Fmz
• A Second programme:
  The guests, on the set, with their objects practice SVP exchanges with the public https://youtu.be/0hmMOQ14pTI
  This programme will be supplemented by location shoots during which the artist will visit a restaurant to question the public about the role of TV as a factor in social communication and will carry out a street mission at the request of a viewer in Nice (the nun in the café).
  Location shoots: (including La religieuse au café)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZZxPjb4MCU&list=UUYZkhgVj62LSecLH-MaIfkA&index=90
  Going down a street stopping passers-by until one of them shares a pastry shop named after a coffee nun...
• The third show :
  Cancelled at the last minute by the Préfecture de police, even though it was scheduled to bring all Parisians together at the foot of the Eiffel Tower.

Exchanging objects via television, please use direct-to-air and the telephone network for the interactive function.

• Design and presentation: Fred Forest
• Setting: Michel Lancelot, programme: "Un jour futur".
• Aim: To try and make a different kind of television. Apart from its news, entertainment and fiction functions, can television play a role in creating social links and stimulating the imagination?

Concept

The aim of this experiment, proposed by the artist to the heads of French television, is to produce a programme that attempts to use the television medium in a dialogical way, allowing viewers to exchange views in a fun and friendly way.

Device

The experience is divided into four parts:

1. A short presentation of art forms calling for audience participation. Viewers are invited to send an object accompanied by a short caption recounting its history (real or imaginary). These objects can also be sent in the form of their representation (drawing or photo). The following week, viewers will be able to see all the objects they have sent scrolling across their screens...
2. Three hundred items were received by the show's secretariat. During a second programme, they were used to organise a live "exchange" on air. As the objects flashed across their screens, viewers, via S.V.P., got in touch and exchanged objects. Exchanges of "story objects", which are symbols with no commercial value. Sociologist Jean Duvignaud will comment on the exchange throughout.
3. All the participants meet at the foot of the Eiffel Tower.
4. Continuation of the experiment, off-air, in the following months with the six hundred people who contacted the programme during its broadcast.

• " Télexpérience de Fred Forest ", Télérama, 26 mars / 9 avril / 21 mai 1975, Paris
• " Une expérience de Fred Forest sur Antenne 2 ",12 avril 1975, Télé 7 jours, Paris
• " Une télexpérience sur A2 ", Télé 7 jours, 22 mai 1975, Paris
• " Un nouveau jeu pour un jour futur ", Ouest-France, 29 mars 1975, Rennes
• " Télexpérience ", Otto Hahn, L'Express n°1237, 24 Mars 1975, Paris
• " La communication selon Fred Forest ", Jean-Michel Royer, Le Figaro, 29 Mars 1975, Paris
• " Un jour futur Fred Forest ", Pierre Rival, Libération, 29 mars 1975, Paris
• " L'objet d'une rencontre ", Maurice Achard, Le quotidien de Paris, 28 mars 1975, Paris
• " Télexpérience : la communication de Fred Forest ", Téléjournal, 29 mars 1975, Paris
• " Jouez avec nous "", Téléjournal, 12 avril 1975, Paris
• " Télexpérience "", Télémagazine, 29 mars 1975, Paris
• " Téléchange ", Le Progrès de Lyon, 21 mars 1975, Lyon.