ICon: Tel Aviv 2024
The 28th ICon was held October 20-22, 20-24 in Tel Aviv, Israel, and included almost 350 panels, lectures, workshops, games, and roleplaying. Some 11,000 tickets were sold to the different events. In each of the three days, at a certain point, entrance to the venue had to be restricted to those who had tickets, because the 1,800 people limit on premises, set for health and safety reasons, was reached.
The main theme of ICon this year was ‘‘prophesies,’’ and there were events both on prophesies in literature, film, and gaming, as well as the role they played, and still play, in different societies. The genre events covered topics from the ‘‘scientific’’ prophecies of Hari Seldon in the Foundation novels and the mechanisms set up to make them come true, through the importance of prophesies in the Buffyverse, to the role of Bruno Madrigal and his visions of the future in Encanto. A few panels discussed the complex relations between science fiction and looking to the future, such as one that brought up the question of whether, in a world going through a climate crisis, SF writers should serve as either prophets of doom or ones foreseeing the possibility of a better world.
In the more realistic context, one lecture dealt with the techniques of modern-day con-artist ‘‘prophets.’’ Another, given by the archeologist Dr. Yael Abad-Reiss and her daughter, presented ancient divination techniques practiced all over the world from China to the Americas. A special workshop for children focused on the reasons and techniques of telling the future using coffee residue and the way smoke curls.
Israeli fandom has been paying more attention to such events for children over the past few years. ICon has become a place where, in the con ops room, you are likely to hear discussions among the personnel on ways to get their young babies to try new tastes and food textures. The fandom is still rather young, but if we want to have people continue to come to cons, we have to take into account the fact that they are starting families.
This shift was also evident in a new cooperation between ICon and the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design. This year ICon had three screenings of short genre films made by Bezalel students, some of them followed by a discussion with the moviemakers. One of these was of children’s films.
Some of the events were dedicated to issues unique to Israel. These ranged from what would constitute an Israeli mythology to the right products and techniques when using makeup for LARPs or cosplay in the hot and sometimes humid Israeli climate.
One of the highlights of ICon this year was ‘‘Universecon 2398’’, a staged reading of a story written and directed by Rotem Baruchin, which was put on three times. The exhausted people producing Universecon in the 24th century must deal with presenters that didn’t bother to let them know in advance what they need (where the hell can you find pens, the ones with the ink and all?!), AI generated ‘‘people’’ that pester the audience, and a dragon catching on fire. And there is still the closing ceremony to come.
– Ehud Maimon
Photographers: Aya Shimanovski, Kai Dekel
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