What is IAM Weekend and how has it changed over the past couple of years?
IAM Weekend is an annual meeting point for curious minds designed to explore, understand and experiment collectively with ‘the futures of everything’, connecting topics from work, automation and identity to fashion, food and sex. Every year we define a conceptual research theme that frames the curation of emerging perspectives that shape talks, panels, workshops and creative collaborations.
Beyond the three-day experience in Barcelona, year after year we have cultivated an eclectic family around it, the manifestation of how we like to understand the internet, as a network of networks of people. Between each event we launch creative partnerships with institutions, publications and companies where members collaborate, transforming the key insights from the event into projects, initiatives and content.
Since the first edition in 2015, IAM Weekend has evolved from a celebration of the randomness of internet cultures to an inclusive think/do tank addressing topics such as power, privacy and reality, with a strong philosophical framework to cultivate more critical, planetary and long-term thinking, saying and doing
Why did you choose the theme Subversion of Paradoxes? What does that mean?
Every year we define the next annual theme around the dates of the event. We just defined the theme for 2019, which will be announced next weekend, above all as a provocation rather than a prediction. When we decided to explore more deeply the juxtaposition of these concepts, Subversion and Paradoxes, we were interested in the contradictions emerging from big issues such as the climate change crisis or political nightmares such as Trump or Brexit, and found in paradoxes a powerful tool to deal with such complicated realities. Month after month, as the events unfolded, the idea of subverting paradoxes became clearer and more relevant. We started to identify fascinating paradoxes embedded in media narratives, and discovered individual and collective subversions, mostly from artists. Another key aspect of the conceptual theme is to leave it open and provocative. Rather than aiming to reach conclusions and predictions, we are trying to create tools for better understanding and framing questions that allow us to navigate complex realities.
