Institute of Art and Ideas

The Institute of Art and Ideas (IAI) is a British philosophy organisation founded in 2008. It operates the HowTheLightGetsIn philosophy and music festival.

Institute of Art and Ideas
Formation2008; 16 years ago (2008)
Location
Websitewww.iai.tv

Overview

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The IAI is a not-for-profit organisation with the stated aim of "rescuing philosophy from technical debates about the meaning of words and returning it to big ideas and putting them at the centre of culture."[1] As such, the Institute runs a website, IAI.tv, which provides articles, courses and podcasts by various scholars and intellectuals on the topics of philosophy, science, politics and the arts.[2][3][4] The IAI is also responsible for organising the bi-annual festival HowTheLightGetsIn, the biggest philosophy and music festival in the world[5] aimed at "tackling the dearth of philosophy in daily life", in addition to monthly IAI Live events.[6][7]

The IAI was founded by philosopher Hilary Lawson with a mission to explore "the cracks in our thinking, in order to change how we think and how we change the world".[8][9] The IAI's first festival, Crunch, focussed on the visual arts and was held in November 2008 in the wake of the financial crash.[10] In May 2009, the IAI held its first philosophy festival HowTheLightGetsIn in the book town of Hay-on-wye.[11][12]

The IAI's festival HowTheLightGetsIn is held in Hay-on-Wye in May and in London at Kenwood House, Hampstead Heath, in September.[13] Described by Yahoo UK as "a playground for the soul", philosophy and the exchange of ideas are at the heart of the event.[14] The festival formulates its theme and programme around debates with headline speakers and live talks, in addition to live bands and soloists, comedy, cabaret and DJs.[15] Speakers have included Noam Chomsky, Steven Pinker, Liz Truss, Roger Penrose, A.S. Byatt, Paul Krugman, Jess Phillips, Rory Stewart, Daniel Dennett, Peter Singer, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Bianca Jagger, and Slavoj Žižek, along with musicians Brian Eno, Clean Bandit, Laura Marling, and comedians James Acaster and Robin Ince.[16][17][18][19]

IAI TV

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IAI.tv is an online platform publishing articles, videos and courses. It includes three sources of content: IAI Player, IAI News and IAI Academy.[20]

IAI Player

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IAI Player is an online channel where the debates and talks curated by the IAI and hosted at the HowTheLightGetsIn Festival are released and made available online.[21][22] Speakers include Nobel Prize winners Paul Krugman, Gerard 't Hooft[23][24] and Roger Penrose, public intellectuals Noam Chomsky, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Daniel Kahneman, Steven Pinker, and Simon Armitage, and political figures and journalists Owen Jones, Helen Lewis, Diane Abbott and Liz Truss.[25][26][27][28]

IAI News

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IAI News is an online magazine of ideas. It publishes philosophical articles on science, politics, and the arts along with core philosophy themes such as metaphysics and language.[29] The IAI website states that the aim of its content is to rescue "philosophy from technical debates about the meaning of words [by] returning them to big ideas and putting them at the centre of culture."[30] Contributors have included Martha Nussbaum, Homi Bhabha, Massimo Pigliucci, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Catherine Hakim, Hew Strachan, Phillip Goff, Huw Davies, and many hundreds of others.[31][32][33][34][35][36][37]

IAI Academy

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IAI Academy is an educational platform of online courses in philosophy, politics, art and science.[38]

Philosophy for Our Times

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Beginning in September 2016, the IAI has published its weekly podcast, Philosophy for our Times, featuring IAI debates and talks from the HowTheLightGetsIn festival.[39][40] In 2021 the podcast was ranked as the Best UK Philosophy Podcast by FeedSpot, based on traffic, social media followers, domain authority and freshness.[41]

Notes and references

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  1. ^ "Introducing the IAI: About Us". IAI TV - Changing how the world thinks. 2018-01-17. Retrieved 2024-06-20.
  2. ^ "Forum for Philosophy". LSE. 7 July 2014. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
  3. ^ "The Institute of Art and Ideas". openDemocracy. Retrieved 26 September 2021.
  4. ^ "IAI.tv". Retrieved 26 September 2021.
  5. ^ Maya Oppenheim (26 October 2021). "HowTheLightGetsIn: The world's largest philosophy and music festival to ask life's big questions". The Independent.
  6. ^ Maya Oppenheim (26 October 2021). "HowTheLightGetsIn: The world's largest philosophy and music festival to ask life's big questions". The Independent.
  7. ^ Paul Pardi (22 October 2020). "Live Debates from the Institute of Art and Ideas". Philosophy News.
  8. ^ "Hilary Lawson". The Independent. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  9. ^ Maya Oppenheim (26 October 2021). "HowTheLightGetsIn: The world's largest philosophy and music festival to ask life's big questions". The Independent.
  10. ^ Michael Archer (18 November 2009). "Contemporary art is not ephemeral". The Guardian.
  11. ^ Charlotte Cripps (23 October 2011). "Ideas festival: Great minds think and drink alike". The Independent.
  12. ^ "Introducing the IAI". 17 January 2018. Retrieved 10 November 2021.
  13. ^ Harriet Marsden (9 June 2018). "HowTheLightGetsIn festival, Hay-on-Wye, Wales, review: A rare combination of fascination and fun". The Independent.
  14. ^ Flic Everett (8 September 2021). "Back to life: HowTheLightGetsIn Festival returns to London". Yahoo!.
  15. ^ Harriet Marsden (9 June 2018). "HowTheLightGetsIn festival, Hay-on-Wye, Wales, review: A rare combination of fascination and fun". The Independent.
  16. ^ Harriet Marsden (9 June 2018). "HowTheLightGetsIn festival, Hay-on-Wye, Wales, review: A rare combination of fascination and fun". The Independent.
  17. ^ Maya Oppenheim (26 October 2021). "HowTheLightGetsIn: The world's largest philosophy and music festival to ask life's big questions". The Independent.
  18. ^ "Speakers". 23 May 2017. Retrieved 26 September 2021.
  19. ^ Paul Pardi (10 September 2020). "HowTheLightGetsIn Festival with Daniel Dennett and Peter Singer". Philosophy News.
  20. ^ "IAI.tv". Retrieved 26 September 2021.
  21. ^ "HowTheLightGetsIn, the world's largest philosophy and music festival, returns with a bang". Independent. 6 October 2021. Retrieved 27 October 2021.
  22. ^ Caleb Forward (21 September 2021). "The Future and Philosophy - HowTheLightGetsIn 2021". Philosophy Foundation.
  23. ^ "Paul Krugman". Retrieved 5 January 2022.
  24. ^ "Prof. dr. Gerard 't Hooft". Retrieved 5 January 2022.
  25. ^ "Speakers". Retrieved 26 September 2021.
  26. ^ Paul Pardi (13 June 2020). "IAI on Consciousness, Kahneman, Cottingham, and Coronavirus". Philosophy News.
  27. ^ "Dr Nick Lane Origin of Life Debate". University College London. 12 March 2021.
  28. ^ Sam Parker (14 January 2013). "Simon Armitage Leads Debate On Metaphors For The Institute Of Art And Ideas (VIDEO)". Huffington Post.
  29. ^ "IAI News". 21 May 2020. Retrieved 26 September 2021.
  30. ^ "Introducing the IAI". 17 January 2018. Retrieved 26 September 2021.
  31. ^ Steven Pinker and Homi Bhabha (10 September 2018). "Does the Enlightenment Need Defending?".
  32. ^ Martha Nussbaum (2018-08-10). "How To Escape Fear: An Interview With Martha Nussbaum".
  33. ^ "Popular Articles". Philip Goff Philosophy. Retrieved 27 October 2021.
  34. ^ "Issue Archive". 18 June 2018. Retrieved 27 October 2021.
  35. ^ Catherine Hakim (18 December 2013). "Embracing Erotic Capital" (PDF).
  36. ^ Hew Strachan (12 August 2021). "The real reason for leaving Afghanistan: the era of interventionism isn't over". IAI News. University of St Andrews. Retrieved 3 November 2021.
  37. ^ Jarke, Juliane (2020). The Datafication of Education. Routledge. ISBN 9781000682960.
  38. ^ "IAI Academy Now Offers Free Courses: From "The Meaning of Life" to "A Brief Guide to Everything"". Open Culture. 17 October 2014.
  39. ^ "Philosophy For Our Times". TuneIn. Retrieved 27 October 2021.
  40. ^ Nick Byrd (18 February 2018). "The Institute of Art and Ideas Podcast: Europe's (Superior) Answer to TED". Nick Byrd.
  41. ^ "Best 15 UK Philosophy Podcasts". Feedspot. 6 August 2021. Retrieved 27 October 2021.
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