IAM Weekend announces first speakers and its theme for 2018: The Subversion of Paradoxes

IAM Weekend 18 will return to Barcelona on 27-29 April for its fourth annual edition. This year’s theme? Subversion of Paradoxes. The event will see an international line-up of speakers take to the stage and explore how we can use paradoxes in the internet age and speculate on what the next 7 years might look like. It promises to be a thought-provoking, challenging and inspiring weekend that will challenge what the near future might look like if we act as individuals and collectively.

“We aim to subvert paradoxes to question the status quo, challenge dominant cultural narratives, binary mindsets and structures, refreshing the meaning of subversion by stimulating fostering planetary, long-term & critical thinking/doing,” say the organisers. “In other words using the internet, instead of being used by it.”

Through panel discussions, presentations, workshops and more, the IAM Weekend will explore how we might “live, work, eat, learn, exchange, design, dress, create and play… in 2025.” The fourth edition of the event has been announced with a new website designed by dvtk and coded by Jack Wild, and a new visual identity by designer Conor Rigby.

The weekend is divided into five themed sessions: Beyond Algorithms will explore automation, work and identity, asking if we are in danger of letting algorithms define us and what the future of individuality might be; Beyond Disciplines will focus on design, arts and learning, asking how education may remain critical and engaged in a world that demands fluidity and flux; Beyond Clicks will look at the future of commerce, advertising and privacy asking what can be achieved though increased digital literacy, a healthy internet and alternatives to existing business models; Beyond Desires concerns fashion, food and sex and what might routine behaviours such as dressing, eating and sex look like in a post-capitalist 2025; and Beyond Dreams will investigate the futures of the planet, power and reality.

The first speakers have been announced and include:
– Audrey Tang, digital minister of Taiwan
– Jane Murison, head of user experience and design, BBC
– Alan Warburton, indie CGI artist
– Ingrid Lafleur, founder of Afrotopia and former candidate for mayor of Detroit
– LaTurbo Avedon, avatar artist and curator

A full speaker lineup can be found and launch price tickets can be found here