IAM Weekend 19: Program Overview
Here’s a look at what to expect at this year’s IAM Weekend, taking place March 21–23 in Barcelona.
This year, the ever-expanding IAM community of thinkers, creators, strategists, designers, educators, artists, urbanists, creative technologists, activists, fiction writers, policy-makers, journalists, publishers, (and more…) will converge upon Barcelona for the fifth annual gathering of an event as unique as the goal it sets itself: to understand the internet. Or, more precisely, to explore the co-evolution of internet(s), digital technologies, and societies.
On the weekend of 21–23 March, 2019, in Barcelona, some 400 creative thinkers and leading organisations from all around the world — each in their own way at the forefront of the world’s digital consciousness — will take part in IAM’s annual event to tackle this year’s research theme: The Quantumness of Archipelagos, and its principal open question:
How can we decelerate, decolonise, and debrief the coevolution of the internet(s), digital technologies, and societies?
IAM Weekend is no ordinary conference. Every year since 2015, IAM has brought together a diverse and thought-provoking selection of speakers and participants from the world over who care about the futures of the internet(s) in a bid to develop and update a proposal to design & imagine alternative tomorrows. Year after year IAM edges progressively nearer to its long-term goal for 2050: to envision planetary citizenship protocols (or networks of protocols) that allow humanity to cultivate a collective planetary consciousness.
“We can not look anymore at the internet as a virtual, remote or idealised place or space. We can not think anymore of a singular, venture capital-shaped, monopolised internet. We can not allow corporations or governments to use the internet against us. And most importantly, we can not ignore anymore the impact this has in the environment, our mental health and collective imaginations.”
- Extract from: ‘The Quantumness of Archipelagos: A proposal to design & imagine alternative tomorrows using the internet(s)’
Perspectives
Who can explain the internet? To think of the internet as networks of networks of people — not only feeds, platforms, servers, cables and infrastructure — is to develop the idea of the internet as collective consciousness: what else could link themes as diverse as migration, climate justice, cities, cultural innovation, arts & design education, digital/tech literacy, creative economies, strategic foresight, media & reality?
The stage is set; the weekend will go something like this. Over 2.5 days there will be six sessions broken down into key topics, each with their own sets of open questions. Among these stage sessions will be interspersed workshops, masterclasses, and unconference session for smaller group interactions, as well as creative experiments and ‘notworking’ nights (aided and abetted by the usual useful randomness of Barcelona).
Over 20 speakers and workshop hosts have been announced (with a few more tba in the upcoming days), including the finalists from the call for proposals we launched in December. Browse the sessions, guest speakers and workshops below:
Stage session titles, key questions and perspectives:
I. Introducing the Quantumness of Archipelagos
Dr. Francesca Ferrando, Ph.D.
Philosopher / co-founder of the NY Posthuman Research Group
🌎 New York
Dr. Francesca Ferrando, Ph.D., is a philosopher of the posthuman. Dr. Ferrando teaches Philosophy at NYU-Liberal Studies, New York University, USA. Her book “Philosophical Posthumanism” is coming out with Bloomsbury in May 2019. Dr. Ferrando was the recipient of the ‘Sainati’ Philosophical Prize awarded by the President of Italy in 2014; she was also the first speaker to give a TED talk on the topic of the posthuman in 2012. Dr. Ferrando is co-founder of the NY Posthuman Research Group. “ORIGIN” named her one of the 100 Top Creatives making change in the world.
‘Black Islands’ by Taller de Casquería
Art & Architecture Collective
🌍 Madrid
Taller de Casqueria is an artist and architecture collective led by Elena Fuertes, Álvaro Molins, Ramón Martínez and Jorge Sobejano. Taller de Casquería’s work focuses on the intersection between architecture and contemporary society. It’s research based experiments and installations aim to find tools to be applied to space, city and society. Their work has been selected to be exhibited in several exhibitions, both collective and solo, such as the Venice Architecture Biennale or the Seoul Architecture Biennale.
II. Decolonising Learning:
How can we embrace critical, conscious and post-binary attitudes in knowledge-sharing and consumption experiences?
Troy Conrad Therrien
Curator, Architecture and Digital Initiatives at the Guggenheim Museum
🌎 New York
Initially trained in computer engineering, mathematics, and commerce, and later in architecture, Troy’s work since has combined these fields. He is currently Curator, Architecture and Digital Initiatives at the Guggenheim Museum where he organized the museum’s first ever online exhibition, Åzone Futures Market, co-organized Architecture Effects, on view in Bilbao in 2018–2019, and is organizing the forthcoming Countryside: Future of the World with Rem Koolhaas/AMO, opening in New York in early 2020. He is an Adjunct Professor of Architecture at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation where he teaches architecture seminars related to ancient history, magic, and contemporary technology. He is currently a member of the United Nations Global Network on Digital Technologies for Sustainable Urbanization (iTSUN), and regularly publishes, serves on awards juries, and speaks internationally.
Madeleine Morley
Associate editor, AIGA’s Eye on Design
🌍 Berlin
Madeleine Morley is a design and arts writer from London based in Berlin. She’s associate editor at AIGA’s Eye on Design, and her writing has appeared in The Guardian, Dazed and Confused Magazine, AnOther, Elephant, Eye, Creative Review, amongst others. Madeleine will talk about her research on gender equality in design conferences
Alejandro Mayoral Baños
Executive Director, Indigenous Friends Association
🌎 Toronto
Alejandro is an Indigenous activist and Ph.D.Candidate, who is currently working with organizations in Canada and Mexico deploying participatory and community-driven ICT projects by/with/for Indigenous peoples. He is the creator and founder of the Indigenous Friends Initiative (Canada) and Magtayaní (Mexico). The Indigenous Friends Initiative is a grassroots organization that develops and supports First Nations, Métis and Inuit media platforms for cultural, academic, and social growth and reconciliation.
‘Citizen/Player’ by Claudia Garza / TEC Monterrey
Academic Program Director — Animation & Digital Art — Tecnológico de Monterrey
🌎 Monterrey
Claudia Garza is an academic researcher and independent visual artist. She studied her BA in Visual and New Media Arts at CEDIM (Monterrey, México). She studied a specialty in Printed Image and Illustration at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. She did her Master degree in Art Research at the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Complutense University of Madrid. Among her research topics are: contemporary digital narratives, video game theory and the future of social interaction through technology. She was the academic coordinator of the postgraduate courses in Innovation, as well as coordinator and teacher of the Digital Art, Animation and Interactive Design courses at CEDIM. Since August 2018 she is the Academic Program Director of the BA in Animation and Digital Art at the Tecnológico de Monterrey, Guadalajara Campus.
III. Decelerating Ecosystems:
How can we use the internet to rethink our relationship with the planet and everything else inside and around it?
Tomás Diez
Urbanist / Leader of the FAB City Global Initiative
🌍 Barcelona
Tomas Diez is a Venezuelan Urbanist specialized in digital fabrication and its implications in the future of cities and society. He is co-founder of Fab Lab Barcelona at the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC), and the director of the Fab City Research Laboratory, and the Director of the Master in Design for Emergent Futures at IAAC. He leads the FAB City Global Initiative in collaboration with an international team of thinkers and makers, and the European project manager for the Fab Foundation.
Michaela Büsse
Artistic researcher / Editor at Migrant Journal
🌎 Basel
Michaela Büsse is an artistic researcher interested in speculative and experimental design practices, new materialism and philosophies of technology and ecology. Her practice is situated, speculative, collaborative and research-led ranging from text to film and installations to workshops. Currently, Michaela is a PhD candidate at the Critical Media Lab in Basel. In 2017, she has been a fellow at Strelka Institute’s design think-tank “The New Normal”. In 2018, Michaela took part in the research residency “Acts of Life” — an interdisciplinary collaboration of NTU CCA Singapore and MCAD Manila. Michaela regularly lectures and runs workshops at various art academies; is part of the editorial board at Migrant Journal and co-founder of ^ studio for xeno-design research.
Kris De Decker
Writer / Creator and author of Low-Tech Magazine
🌎 Barcelona
Kris De Decker is the creator and author of “Low-tech Magazine”, a blog that is published in English, Dutch and Spanish. Since 2007, Low-tech Magazine refuses to assume that every problem has a high-tech solution.
‘SolarPunk and Cyber Ecology’ by Joanna Skorupska
Founder, Radicalzz.studio
🌍 Warsaw
Founder of Radicalzz, all-in-one studio that implements technologies to serve humans needs. She has made her mission to accelerate the sustainability and innovation practices in the field of products, and service design and development. Technology enthusiast, but radical in underlining its human side. She believes that technology should serve the people’s needs — not the opposite. She uses it as a tool that helps her to reshape the world around us and create the better future.
‘Integration and Digital Practices: An Ethnographic Study of Young Refugees in Berlin’ by Jessica Bishopp
Filmmaker and Design Researcher
🌍 Berlin
London-based filmmaker, researcher and artist Jessica Bishopp experiments with a range of media, exploring universal themes embedded in our daily lives and thoughts and exposing the magic in the mundane. Her work has been exhibited at Somerset House, the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) and the Science Museum, London. Jessica’s films have screened at festivals such as Sheffield Doc/Fest, Aesthetica Short Film Festival and London Short Film Festival (LSFF). Her films have featured online on The Atlantic, NOWNESS, The Guardian, Dazed&Confused and Aeon, and her short films have received more than one Vimeo Staff Pick.
IV. Reloading The Futures of the Internet(s):
How can we reimagine better internet(s) moving forward and what can we learn from the last 10 years of the evolution of the internet as cultures?
Ingrid Burrington
Artist & Writer
🌎 New York
Ingrid Burrington writes, makes maps, and tells jokes about places, politics, and the weird feelings people have about both. She’s the author of Networks of New York: An Illustrated Field Guide to Urban Internet Infrastructure and has previously written for The Atlantic, The Nation, and others. Together with Surya Mattu, they are working as INFRA (Investigations, Near Futures, Research, and Art) a loosely associated organization/detective agency engaging in projects, programs, and poetic gestures that support advocates, educators, and others in building arguments for substantive change and new narratives for the future of technology and society.
Isabel Martínez
Independent creative director / @Isabelitavirtual
🌎 Barcelona
Isabel is the name behind @IsabelitaVirtual. An independent creative director based in Barcelona. She has collaborated with fashion and cultural brands such as Tiffany & Co, Delpozo, Hermès, Coach, Vogue Italia, Other Stories, Viktor&Rolf, Dior, Oysho, Louis Vuitton Foundation or The Moscow Ballet. In 2011 she joined Instagram. Two years later she became the most followed person in Spain, but she’s far from being the typical influencer. In 2018 she was named Webby Award Honoree for Best Social Content in Art & Culture. With ‘Midnight Sunrise’ project she jumped from the tiny screens of smartphones to the giant billboards of Times Square.
‘Grow Your Own Cloud’ by Monika Seyfried & Cyrus Clarke
Interaction Designer & Designer, explorer, artist and researcher
🌍 Copenhagen
Monika is a Researcher at the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design, with a background in art, photography and film making. In her work, she engages at the intersection of emerging technologies, audiovisual media and the natural environment, creating sensory rich, interactive spaces. Her current research topics are The Future of Nuclear Fusion Energy, Ethics in Creating IoT, Critical Heritages in Europe and Plant-based Data Storage. Her work has been exhibited in several cities across the globe, including Beijing, Paris, Copenhagen, Linz and Zagreb. She teaches Interactive Spaces and Design Thinking.
Cyrus used to be human, but got over it. He is usually exploring futures, which in an age of alleged futures being surpassed by present implementation, has led to a shift in practice from fictional evocations to material epistemological critique. He seeks to initiate discussion on the ethical, environmental, political and socio-economic implications of the technology filled worlds we are rushing to create, and allow citizens to step into near-future scenarios blending art, science and technologies such as machine learning, blockchain, mixed reality and biotechnology. Through his work, people have had the chance to reform the attention economy, debate the implications of data storage in biological matter, develop concepts for a post-money world, and contribute to a platform to help see through ‘fake news’. His work has been recognised and exhibited internationally, including solo shows in the United States and Denmark. As an educator he has developed and instructed workshops in India, Denmark, France and the UK.
V. Browsing The Ethics of Design, Foresight & AI:
How can we anticipate the long-term social impact, unexpected uses and ethical challenges of the tech we design today?
Raina Kumra
Director of Tech & Society portfolio at Omidyar Network
🌎 Los Angeles
Raina leads strategy and investments for the Tech & Society portfolio at Omidyar Network with a specific focus on investors and startups. She brings operational perspective and strategic insight from recent work in the field leading projects as the Ethical OS toolkit. She is also the CEO of Juggernaut, a consulting agency for brand influence, with a focus on behavioral and social movement design. Raina holds a B.S. in Film Production from Boston University, an M.A. in Interactive Telecommunications from NYU’s ITP program and an M.Des.S. in Design Studies for Digital Applications in Urban Planning and Architecture from Harvard University. She is a member of The Council on Foreign Relations. She is one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business.
Ted Hunt
Independent speculative / discursive / critical designer
🌎 London
Born in Wales 1976, Ted Hunt is an independent speculative / discursive / critical designer living and working in London and currently a resident of Somerset House Studios. Ted’s work investigates the intersections between our ancient behavioural-driven selves and modern technologically-driven selves. He continually explores non-linear/alternative paradigms and examines the boundaries between subjective, objective and inter-subjective interpretations and perspectives. Graduating from the Royal College of Art in 2016, under Professor Anthony Dunne, he is a fellow of Royal Society of Arts and his work has been commissioned and shown internationally.
‘Artificial Neurodivergence’ by Gabriel Bianconi
Founder of Scalar Research
🌎 New York
Gabriel is the founder of Scalar Research, a full-service artificial intelligence & data science consulting firm. Scalar helps companies tackle complex business challenges with data-driven solutions leveraging cutting-edge machine learning and advanced analytics. Previously, Gabriel was a B.S. & M.S. student in computer science at Stanford, where he conducted research on computer vision, deep learning, and quantum computing. He’s also spent time at Google, Facebook, startups and investment firms.
VI. Debriefing Imaginations
How can we empower ourselves and others to redistribute power using inclusive, decolosined and plural narratives about what happens next?
Xiaowei Wang
Engineer & designer / Creative Director at Logic Magazine
🌎 Beijing / San Francisco
Xiaowei is an engineer, designer and scholar based between the US and China. She works across public art, data visualization and writing to explain complex technical and data-rich concepts. She has co-founded a number of award-winning projects, including FLOAT Beijing, an air quality sensing kite initiative, which was an INDEX Design to Improve Life Finalist. Other work includes data visualization work for the UN Special Rapporteur on Counter-Terrorism while at Situ Research, and creating the Nomadic Mapping Collective for The U.S. Department of State/ZERO1’s American Arts Incubator program. Currently, she serves as Creative Director of Logic Magazine.
Simone Rebaudengo
Product & interaction designer / Founding member of automato.farm
🌎 Shanghai
Simone is a product and interaction designer based in Shanghai, where he works with international clients and institutions like BMW, Philips, Google Creative Labs and the Dubai’s Museum of the Future. His work focuses on building experiential versions of the future and exploring the implications of living and interacting with networked, smart and autonomous things. He’s a founding member of automato.farm , a design collective focused on exploring the implications of automation and machine intelligence leaking in the everyday. Simone also co-founded YEAST, a future of food and living laboratory. In his previous career, he used to work at frog jumping around fortune 500 clients doing design research, product innovation, and big delivery projects across Europe, Asia and Australia.
Mohsen Hazrati
Media artist & curator / co-founder of Daar-al-Hokoomeh Project
🌎 Shiraz
Mohsen graduated in 2012 with a BA in graphic design from Shiraz Art Institute of Higher Education, minoring in new media and digital art, where he was also acted as a teachers’ asistant. His works focus on digital culture, new-aesthetic and the integration of these two issues into the Shirazi culture and have been exhibited in Transfer and Babycastles Gallery — New York, Matchbox Gallery — Texas and V-Gallery Tehran. Since 2013, in collaboration with MiladForouzande, he has been the co-founder and curator of “Daar-Al-Hokoomeh Project”; a new media art project and activity based in Shiraz,Iran. In 2016, Mohsen began lecturing as an assistant professor in his alma mater, teaching Digital Aesthetics and VFX courses.
‘Let the Blind Lead: Hacking Visual Culture’ by The Glad Scientist
Art Director/VR Musician
🌍 Berlin
The Glad Scientist is the pseudonym of Puerto Rican new media artist Daniel Sabio. His works range from igniting live virtual reality concerts to immersive code-driven installations. They have garnered diverse international attention, from ISEA (International Symposium of Electronic Art) to Bass Coast Festival, and placed him in shows alongside Michio Kaku, Waka Flocka and Molly Soda. He wields a BS in Computational Media (Computer Science+Art) from Georgia Tech, is a contributor to IMRSV Arts, and a founder of Art in Tech Atlanta and VLSC Records. In the past year, his creative work has been recognized through a number of initiatives, including Oculus Launchpad, Art Omi:Music Fellowship, Zoo Labs Music Accelerator, IDEO CoLab Fellowship, and Berlin Sessions. His unique perspectives on technology’s connection to the human spirit derive from a mixture of internet subcultures fused with insights from studies in some of music’s richest cultures. Now in Berlin, he continues this exploration with a focus on immersive media, sound design, and performance.
Workshops
How To Use The Internet Mindfully
hosted by Willa Köerner (The Creative Independent) & Leo Shaw (Are.na)
Creative Content Director at The Creative Independent / Communications & Special Projects at Are.na
🌎 New York
More than ever, creative people find their attention pulled in many directions by digital and networked technologies. Keeping up with so many forms of online communication often feels mandatory in order to keep working. But, it can be both exhausting and dispiriting to build a creative practice — and a life — while “extremely online.”
Led by Willa Köerner of The Creative Independent, a resource of emotional and practical guidance for creative people, and Leo Shaw of Are.na, a digital platform for connecting ideas, this workshop will ask participants to take a radical look at their own use of the internet.
‘Phi: the World Game’ by Aliaksandra Smirnova / Phi Collective
Urbanist and Visual Artist
🌍 Barcelona
Aliaksandra (Sasha) Smirnova is an urbanist and visual artist based in Barcelona. Through her research and artistic practice, she explores the political, social and emotional dimensions of emerging technologies. Aliaksandra has participated in various urban competitions and congresses, published papers in peer-reviewed urban research journals and has taken part in several publications. Her works were presented at Färgfabriken Stockholm, Vapaan Taiten Tila Helsinki, MAO Ljubljana, Haimney Gallery Barcelona, Strelka Institute Moscow, Moscow Urban Forum, Haishang Cultural Centre of Shanghai, and Royal Academy of Arts: Architectural program.
‘Internet activism: more than a # campaign’ by Fiona O’Grady
Head of digital relations/Communications consultant
🌍 Berlin
Internet activism isn’t going anywhere and it will continue to become more pertinent as brands keep monopolising this. We, as creatives and more, need to be conscious of our biases and how they shape our ideas. If you can’t be the clued in person working in house for a brand or pitching agency side, people will continue to be marginalised by careless actions and the internet used against people by isolating communities. The aim of this session is to discuss how we can be more conscious of our own privileges and biases when communicating online and to improve our work within the industry. How can we direct our power and creative energy towards unifying rather than isolating people?
‘Digital Self’ Workshop by Joana Mateus & Vytas Jankauskas / Cached Collective
Designers & Researchers
🌍 Lisbon / Berlin
Joana is a designer determined to render complex issues surrounding data and technology legible to the general public. Vytas is a designer and researcher, fascinated by the visual and social dissonances that rapidly developing technologies generate in our boring domestic mundane. Joana and Vytas are members of the Cached Collective, an international group of creatives dedicated to exploring how technology influences our individual lived realities. Our interests delve into data, algorithmic complexity, and obscure infrastructure, especially focusing on how these affect the individual.
‘The Doing Nothing workshop’ by Rui Quinta & Gabriel Jiménez Andreu
Founder, With Company / Service Designer, Flat 101
🌍 Lisbon / Zaragoza
From standing to playing dead. From moving to being at rest. From talking to total silence. Fading ourselves to nothingness will be the purpose of this session.
Rui co-founded the fish shop Peixaria Centenária, the space experience design studio, Toyno and With Company, a strategic design consultancy based in Lisbon where I try to help others design better services, products, brands and businesses. He is lecturing Design Management and Entrepreneurship at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Strategic Design and Innovation at ISEG, in Lisbon and hasbeen coaching teams on DT with the HPI Academy from Berlin. H is breathing in my free time.
Gabi works as a service designer in Flat 101 but that doesn’t tell you who he is. On the other hand if he tells you that he loves watching cartoons, that his favourite color is black and the book he has read the most is catch 22 tells you a lot about him. In his spare time he designs objects for an unreal world, and mostly do nothing as way of enjoying life.
As ever, the entire event will be dependent on and faithful to the IAM mantra — “In Randomness We Trust.” That is to say, if you literally throw together 400 of the most diverse, interesting, and forward-thinking perspectives from around the world, the result will be as valuable as the process. Like the internet, maybe.
Register now and join 400 fellow creative thinkers and leading organisations at IAM Weekend 19, March 21–23, 2019 in Barcelona.
About IAM
Founded by Lucy Black-Swan & Andres Colmenares, IAM is an independent alternative think-tank, strategic consultancy, and community dedicated to exploring the coevolution of internet(s), digital technologies and societies all year around, using futures as tools aiming to have a positive influence in the agendas of leading organisations.
IAM fosters critical mindsets, long-term narratives and planetary imagination through curatorial and research projects, collective ideation experiments, learning and strategic foresight initiatives in partnership with cultural institutions as Tate, media organisations as BBC, universities as University of Arts London, global brands as Red Bull and foundations as Mobile World Capital Barcelona.
Every spring since 2015, IAM Weekend has served as a platform for a spectacular deep-dive into the state of media, learning, design, politics, and the arts as cultivated through the randomness of internet cultures. And every year, our planetary community of internet people grows larger, stronger, and more diverse.
