Lecture and Panel discussion

Twins: Conversations on the Duality between Identity, Transformation and Contemporary Imaginaries

Date

22 May 2026

Time

17:00 PM - 20:00 PM

Where

IED - Istituto Europeo di Design Via Alcamo, 11, Rome - Italy

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In-person event

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Four lectures and a final talk exploring how brands, organizations and individuals navigate change and redefine their identity across physical, symbolic and digital dimensions.

In a historical moment often described as a period of radical transformation, simply speaking of change risks being reductive. The coordinates through which we interpret the present seem to multiply and overlap, along with the identities, languages and forms of relationships that shape brands, organizations and communities.

On Friday, May 22, the Postgraduate School of IED Roma presents Twins, an event conceived as a shared reflection that takes its starting point from a symbolic reference: Gemini, the zodiac sign associated with communication and the ability to move between different planes. The image of the double becomes a key through which to observe how individuals and collective entities today exist simultaneously across multiple dimensions - between material presence, symbolic representation and digital projection.

The program, curated by Carlo Antonelli, unfolds through four thematic lectures, each approaching the theme of the double from a different perspective and opening trajectories of reflection across design, fashion, music, research and contemporary imaginaries.

New Waves in music and street style: 1982–2027 with Carlo Antonelli and Luca Benini

A journey through languages, imaginaries and codes that, from the 1980s to today, have redefined the relationship between music, style and urban cultures.

Sewing Twin Universes with Domitilla Dardi and Sofia Mattioli (in English)

A conversation on symbolic practices, imagination and meaning-making, where the act of sewing becomes a metaphor for connecting worlds, identities and visions.

Other ecologies: Natural, Numeral, Computational with Vittorio Maria Dal Maso

A reflection on the new ecologies of the present - between nature, computation and artificial intelligence - exploring what technologies generate, transform and leave behind.

The Personal Digital Twin: Origins, Development, and Perspectives with Derrick De Kerckhove

A reflection on the evolution of the concept of the digital twin: from engineering to medicine, and toward the emergence of a digital double of the person, opening new scenarios and perspectives for the future of the digital externalization of the self.

These lectures will be followed by a final talk bringing all speakers into conversation, extending the discussion to themes such as narrative construction, the transformation of brands, and the ways communities and individual identities are redefined within increasingly complex contexts.

After the event, an aperitivo will offer the opportunity to continue the conversation informally and learn more about the Postgraduate School’s educational offer together with the coordinators of the Master and Bachelor of Arts programs.

PROGRAM

16:40 Registration

17:00 Thematic lectures

18:00 Talk

19:00 Aperitivo and meeting with the Postgraduate School coordinators

Twins is part of the program Plural Intelligences, through which IED celebrates the 60th anniversary of its foundation, and is included in the Insulae program of Open House Roma.