In the case of Intervention the purpose of the theme is to give the programme a shape. I want to be able to start an argument in one item, develop it in another and present the consequences in a third. I want the conversation in the bar to be effected by what has been happening on stage and what happens on stage to be an expansion of the conversation that has been taking place in the bar.
The idea is to put together a programme where it does not seem out of place for an item to contain references to Nineteen Eighty Four, A Clockwork Orange, Star Trek, Space Patrol and the Legion of Superheroes. To provide a chance to be part of a human fax machine or to imitate a dolphin in the queue for breakfast. To get people interested in the overlap between genres and not overly involved in the differences between them.
My working life since school has been concerned with ideas of communication and the chance to design a convention around this theme was too good to leave alone. The theme is large enough to encompass items on technical specifications on cable television transmissions and the use of the apostrophe in names as an alienation device. It is serious enough to cover questions as to how we can deal other species when we cannot deal with other cultures. It is light hearted enough to include workshops on Klingon sign-language for the deaf. It can even drag us enough into the real world to ask how we might get the genre taken more seriously by the media (and if it's worth the effort).
SF is a genre with communications at its heart. It allows its creators to play games which no other genre can deal with. In SF you can explore the political consequences of reducing the vocabulary, you can can examine the problems of trying to reach an entity with which you have nothing in common except sentience, you can extrapolate the unexpected consequences of technical developments.
Any convention, being a social occasion, is based on communications. They are derived from a desire on the part of the menbership to meet others to whom they can talk without having to explain their references. They consist of people swapping ideas, acquiring and dispensing facts and opinions. They are controlled by people whispering self importantly into wally phones sending requests for more chairs from the back of the auditoriums.
Reading the conversations on the 'Net has shown an encouraging level of support for the theme of communication. This is particularly gratifying since I was worried that communication was too nebulous a concept for people to get behind. It seems I am not alone in my fascination. If you have any ideas that you think that we should consider or if you want to volunteer yourself as a communicator then please get in touch with us via the standard pathways.