Science and technology will never be viewed in the same way after the launch of The Big Idea, reports Lesley Cowling
The battle to persuade the average South African to take an interest in science moves into the realm of popular culture this week with the launch of an innovative new television show.
Flighting on SABC1 on Sunday evenings, The Big Idea uses every trick in the book to attract popular attention and hold it: a game-show format, the involvement of well-loved celebrities, mind-boggling inventions and gadgets and, above all, never mentioning the words “science and technology”.
Research by the science councils has shown that this phrase is a big turn- off for most South Africans, who are often actively hostile to the field. For black South Africans, particularly, science and technology is identified with the “big brother” style of the previous establishment.
In an attempt to change these perceptions, the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology commissioned a number of television shows. The Big Idea, produced by M&G TV and Protec and funded by the department and Iscor, is designed to reach as wide an audience as possible – the 80% of South Africans who have no scientific background.
To achieve this objective, The Big Idea had to come up with a unique format, something that has not been done anywhere else in the world, says producer Harriet Gavshon.
The show is structured around two teams of celebrities competing in a studio environment to do a task – design a musical instrument, for example, or build a Parktown prawn detector. The tasks were created by Protec, an education NGO with 22 branches around the country and a great deal of experience in designing hands-on science education for schoolchildren.
The celebrities had to be carefully chosen to attract a wide range of viewers, so popular icons like kwaito group TKZee, soccer players Marks Maponyane and Linda Buthelezi, and characters from local soapies Isidingo:The Need and Suburban Bliss are featured.
Every task had to be equally well chosen – simple enough for an audience to follow, exciting enough to get viewers to try it themselves and short enough to be done in 30 minutes. M&G TV and Protec tested every task exhaustively before using it on the show.
The Big Idea also features inserts on South African individuals or companies who are doing extraordinary technical things. There’s a young man from Mpumalanga who builds telephones out of scrap materials, a company that makes wind-up radios and the history of South Africa’s gift to the swimming pools of the world, the ubiquitous Kreepy Krauly.
Part of the department’s brief to the producers was to show how science and technology is not just the province of big corporations and governments, but part of people’s daily lives, even if they live in rural areas.
This follows a recent trend in the science and technology sector to recognise and make use of indigenous technology – strategies or products that may have been part of traditional communities for hundreds of years.
A local alternative to Viagra, the drug touted internationally as a remedy for impotence, is one of these. A frog that is used as a local delicacy is another. Rather more macabre is the use of local insects by forensic experts to find clues to how people have died, especially if their bodies have been found outdoors.
But whatever the elements, the overall objective of the show was to create an excitement about the ideas being explored, says Gavshon. “The Big Idea has been designed to make science and technology fun,” she says. “It is not intended directly to educate, but to inspire and delight.”