The Adam Curtis Party Conference

Photo Steve Rhodes, Flickr

The British party political conference season begins in September 2026, and nobody has an alternative vision, only repackaged versions of the past.

Step forward Adam Curtis, Britain's most famous advocate for an alternative future.

It's ten years since , the BBC documentary that revealed how our society has been financialised, narrativised and medicalised to create the illusion of political stability and maintain 'rational' control.

Curtis showed how public relations, algorithms and technocratic management combine to keep us all in a state of confused passivity.

While all around us chaos and corruption proliferate.

Party conference season is when we're supposed to have open debates and discussions about the future direction of the country.

But most of us feel revulsion at the way our political parties are organised.

We want nothing to do with them.

And yet Adam Curtis points out with monotonous regularity, nothing will change until we can imagine an alternative future and then act collectively to grasp the levers of power.

If you're interested in ideas and thinking about ways to take action, this weekend is for you.

Let's unite around a thoughtful figure whose appeal transcends political divisions.

Let's restore the best of BBC light entertainment values to our culture, while enjoying high-brow references to Max Weber and crafting sophisticated stories linking superficially unconnected events.

This get-together is a chance to meet other fans of Adam Curtis and have conversations and debates about his documentaries and ideas.

Could it be the start of a new political mass movement led by genial middle-class people with a sense of humour and an excellent taste in music?

We hope so.

Come to the spiritual home of party political conferences to dance, debate and reject the dark forces of rational control.

The first Adam Curtis Party Conference will be the pretext to launch the new Adam Curtis Society*, which will celebrate the BBC documentary maker's work.

We will have an evening event on the Friday, which will be announced later.

SPEAKERS

We will add the names of the speakers here as they are confirmed. We will do our best to deliver the programme as described, but there are always last-minute changes.

The purpose of this event is to encourage others to come forward with policies for an alternative future. If you are inspired by the Adam Curtis Party, please pitch us your musical, artistic or policy idea.

There are plenty of venues in Bournemouth. We'd love to promote fringe events.

CONTEXT

Why Bournemouth?

Seaside resorts have historically attracted not only holidaymakers but also mystics, eccentrics, health reformers, artists and political visionaries.

Bournemouth has long hosted religious conferences, esoteric groups and political gatherings for precisely this reason.

It’s a gentle place.

It feels different to other urban areas.

When you get here, you breathe the clean air, you're struck by the green of the pine trees and when you get to the beach, you're overwhelmed by the huge panorama of sea that stretches from the Isle of Wight to the Purbecks.

We live in a liminal space on the edge of land and sea.

Like Hay-on-Wye, it’s great for a weekend event.

Arrive on the Friday evening. Check in to your hotel. Go for a meal. Get up early. Then walk along the beach to the Freemasons’ Hall.

Our event is designed so you go to a couple of talks, have a coffee, chat to some people, then set off with a group for a light lunch in Boscombe (we’ll recommend some venues and warn them that there will be a bigger influx than normal.)

Then come back for the afternoon sessions, go for a meal in the evening and then take part in our night-time entertainment before returning to your hotel.

On Sunday morning, have breakfast and then come along to one of our remaining events, before heading back to where you came from in the afternoon.

Boscombe, the nearest suburb to our venue, is an edgy place.

It has all of the problems of modern Britain: loneliness, apathy, retail decay, inequality, homelessness and junkies.

Bournemouth was founded as a health resort - people came here to recover, rest, or reinvent themselves.

Adam Curtis constantly reiterates the importance of alternative ideas.

With its many rehab centres, Boscombe has an underground 12-step culture.

There are people here who have been addicted to drugs and alcohol, but they have come back from the brink.

You overhear their conversations in cafés, you see people leaving church halls after meetings, or at the school gates you’ll spot an AA tattoo.

What can recovering addicts teach us about politics?

Addicts discover the limits of 'rational' control.

Their recovery depends on giving up 'rational' control.

They have to acquire a new discipline and optimism based on faith.

This faith is expressed through service to other recovering addicts.

The ideas behind the 12-steps are widely available in the mainstream thanks to the internet and the testimonies of celebrities.

They are a rebuke to the economistic, managerial and technocratic ideologies that prevail in Britain today.

Boscombe has all the problems of modern Britain. It is unique because it also has a solution.

Give up trying to have 'rational' control. Instead accept that many of our problems are beyond 'rational' control.

The conference will examine what that might mean.

If you live locally, we host regular supper clubs and conversations groups throughout the year which you are welcome to join.

Political Knights meets regularly at Chaplin's & The Cellar Bar and Indaba Club meets at Wild Café.

The Saturday will feature sessions structured around the following themes:

The Language of Political Change

Alexei Yurchak identified that before the collapse of the Soviet Union there was a collapse in meaningful political language. Likewise Christopher Clark identified that during the protests that led to the 1848 revolutions in Europe, a new political language emerged.

What evidence can we find for decline or renewal of our political discourse?

2016-2026: A Decade of Alternative Visions and Lost Futures

Curtis critiqued the failure of mass movements such as Occupy and the Arab Spring as lacking a coherent vision of the future.

At the same time, he was often inspired by thinkers such as David Graeber, Roberto Unger and Mark Fisher who have presented radical visions for societal change. Ten years on, are we any closer to understanding how to combine popular dissent with the active creation of a new future?

Making Art in Hypernormalised Times

Russia had the Strugatsky Brothers, Tarkovsky and Samizdat. What is our current artistic equivalent that speaks to the weirdness of our times? And how do we make it?

The BBC Archive Karaoke Competition

Your chance to enter our competition to narrate a series of unconnected images you haven't previously seen into a thought-provoking narrative at once sublime and ridiculous.

What do we really think about Russia?

The British Establishment fears the Russian people in general and loathes Vladimir Putin in particular. What is the history of our complex relations with Russia?

The Adam Curtis Disco
Adam Curtis has reanimated dance sequences from the past, pairing them with ghostly sounds from disco optimism to electronic beats.

Come and enact blissful ignorance of the historical consequences of our present on the dancefloor as we 'do the hustle', board our 'soul train' and come down with 'Saturday Night Fever’.

Reject George Soros, Larry Fink and Bill Gates.

Embrace Adam Curtis as the new guru for global change!

Whether you're paranoid, perplexed or passionate, book your hotel by the seaside and celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Hypernormalisation.

We'll be in Bournemouth's grand Freemasons' Hall, where members of international cabals rub shoulders with conspiracy thinkers and lovers of a well-stocked bar.

We welcome proposals and ideas for extra sessions.

We will announce speakers and publish a full programme in due course.

There will also be an event on the Sunday for the very committed.

*Purchase of a full-price ticket will entitle you to a one-year membership of the new Adam Curtis Society.

For more information call 07545 232980 or email: [email protected]

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