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.

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: enquiry [at] thespeechwriter.co.uk

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