Andres Colmenares

Co-founder and strategist, IAM

Beyond Borders: The Post-technological Futures of Arts, Design, Learning and 'everything'

Is the internet a place, a state of mind or a mirror? How is the coevolution of digital technologies and internet cultures influencing the ways the arts and design are defined, experienced and applied? How can we design today, the futures for learning experiences we want to remember 10 years from now? What if we challenge the binary mindsets encoded in contemporary education?

Following the 'Edge Effects' theme, this talk will focus on the interconnections, questions and paradoxes emerging from transdisciplinary approaches to arts and design learning. Those suiting fluid, in-flux identities and fostering a more critical, planetary and long-term thinking in the reimagination of everything.

About Andres Comenares

Andres Colmenares is the co-founder of IAM (Internet Age Media), the platform connecting the futures of media, education & the arts, cultivating and celebrating the randomness of internet cultures. Since 2015, together with his partner Lucy Rojas, they are developing unconventional research, curatorial & commissioning projects through creative partnerships with cultural institutions, universities and media companies as Tate, University of Arts London or the BBC, along with a number of experimental initiatives, including events, videos, learning journeys and publications, always expanding and following the principles stated in the IAM manifesto.

His approach is built on over 10 years dedicated to explore speculative research themes, methods and narratives, looking at how the evolution of the internet as cultures, is shaping the futures of everything, creating tools and experiences to empower people through critical, planetary and long-term thinking.

Before co-founding IAM, Andres created wabi-sabi lab, a strategic foresight company focused on futures research, concept development and communication strategies in different fields - from media, youth culture and education to retail and the regulation of the sharing economy, working with leading brands, institutions, startups and agencies between Latin America and Europe. Prior to this, while studying Advertising in his hometown, Bogota, he worked as a freelance trend researcher, as a creative consultant in digital advertising and marketing projects, and as a project manager, team leader and web designer for a wide range of websites, portals and microsites.

On the public side, Andres also writes opinion articles for publications as CRACK Magazine or LS:N Global and has been invited to speak at events as Lift Conference in Geneva, Calvert Forum in Kazan, Youth Marketing Day in Helsinki, Pecha Kucha Night and World Youth Student Travel Conference in Barcelona, and has been selected to participate in hackathons and design sprints in Doha (CANVAS Open-innovation Hackathon by Al-Jazeera), Berlin (Hack/Hackers Connect by Google News Lab) and Stockholm (Future of banking sprint by Swedbank) He is also a guest lecturer in University of Arts London, Istituto Europeo di Design, Blanquerna, LaSalle College International and ELISAVA School of Design & Engineering of Barcelona.

Twitter: @colmenares
Instagram: @andrescolmenares
Email: andres@internetagemedia.com