The people speak in Hackney

The Vortex in Dalston usually plays host to free flowing jazz but on 24 February its focus was on another performance with all the razzmataz of a live gig but without a musical instrument in sight.

The star was conversation and the stage a doughnut-shaped table hooked up to all manner of media devices.

The evening was another stop on Talkaoke‘s open training session tour across Hackney as the borough-based collective invited guests to join its social innovation project.

The premise is simple. A versatile, transportable table is set up here, there or anywhere and linked up to a camera, screen and complex computer program nicknamed ‘Heckle’ all operated at the scene.

Its creator Mikey Weinkove, a long time Hackney resident, started out trying to flip the idea of daytime talkshows into a “live art nightclub chatshow in real life” based at Brick Lane’s Vibe Bar over ten years ago and has turned it into a massively successful fixture seen at nightclubs, parks, festivals and in Copenhagen during the recent climate change talks.

Debate is loosely directed, with an open, frank discussion encouraged. Sitting around the table can be a daunting experience at first, akin to being strongarmed into a game of table football even though you know you’re rubbish.

However, you soon get into the swing of things as conversation develops. Like karaoke or shouting it provides a way to be heard in a social forum but with a reduced risk of embarrassment.

Since its origins in London’s nightclubs and the Edinburgh Festival the Talkaoke project has spiralled into ‘The People Speak‘, a joint project created by Weinkove and London artist Saul Albert which acts as an umbrella term to collate the groups ideas and operations.

“Reversing mass media subjugation and giving people an excuse to talk to each other,” was the early intent says Weinkove. “10,000 Talkaoke tables” remains the aim: the team see the activity as a transferrable fixture that could be used at venues in much the same way a karaoke machine.

With a core technical team of Rick Sleiman and Hektor Kowalski the group have been able to expand their operation into projects like ‘Who Wants To Be?’, in which each audience member pays £10 to attend and then democratically decides what to spend the total on have been a roaring success in the borough.

Results have ranged from a piece of woodland in Wales to a generator in Zambia giving participants ownership of the product and not just a ticket to view it.

At the centre of their work is a changing Hackney and the increasing dislocated connection between citizen and local authority.

“I’d like to play a bigger role in Hackney. People are happy that the Olympics are so close but upset that they are not being listened to,” says Weinkove.

“There’s a middle line to be found, there does need to be renovation in Hackney and you need to bring in capital which is always going to be controversial. I’d rather see it in this flawed way than not at all.”

Accordingly Weinkove includes outside the gates of town halls along with shopping centres and basement bars as the ideal locations for a Talkaoke table. Although he’s keen to point out that any space is an opportunity.

“Outside the town hall is useful, as you can find out the temperature of the people by listening to what they have to say. It is crucially important that people feel like they’re participating in a system and to feel like they have ownership. Participation in itself is half the struggle.”

Which is why the event is open source. Not only are the spaces around the table free but the central ‘host’ role is up for grabs as the crew try and shift ownership of the event away from the facilitators and onto the participants.

The People Speak continue their Talkaoke sessions at the Tate (Saturday 13 March)