Delegate profile

Matt Symes

The Lore Architect. Archivist, systems thinker, AI wrangler and maker of maps, games, posters, prompt packs and mock-serious artefacts. Converts chaos into structured output, but risks sanctions by asking too many sensible questions of the Politburo.

Trips: 12
Recent posts: 0

Trips attended

2026 / Yerevan, Armenia
The next official matter before the General Secretariat: mountains, monasteries, brandy, border ambiguity, and enough Caucasus energy to restore institutional morale.
2025 / Oslo, Norway and Longyearbyen, Svalbard
The Arctic edition: seed vault mythology, Pyramiden, Barentsburg, polar-bear-adjacent caution, and the northernmost version of almost everything.
2024 / Sarajevo and Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina
A Bosnia conference with real historical weight, mountain roads, Ottoman bridges, concrete textures, and enough weather risk to satisfy the movement.
2023 / Cluj-Napoca, Romania and Debrecen, Hungary
A Cluj and Debrecen route that proved ICOM can still generate institutional complexity from apparently manageable European cities.
2022 / Skopje, Macedonia
The Skopje edition restored overseas ICOM energy with monumental public art, Balkan logistics, and enough civic oddness for a respectable field file.
2021 / Aberdeen, UK - Och-Eye-COM
A Scottish edition demonstrating that ICOM energy does not require the former Soviet sphere when domestic weather and granite can carry the burden.
2019 / Tashkent, Samarkand and Bukhara, Uzbekistan
The Uzbekistan edition paired Silk Road architecture with plov, trains, courtyards, and a more beautiful form of bleakness than the word usually suggests.
2018 / Baku and Ganja, Azerbaijan
The Azerbaijan edition: Baku, Ganja, Flame Towers, Caspian oddness, plov, oil-bath mythology, and a destination name that did not require much help.
2009 / Kiev and Pripyat / Chernobyl, Ukraine
A defining ICOM chapter: Kiev, Pripyat, Chernobyl, radiation-adjacent mythology, and the moment the archive becomes impossible to explain as a normal travel habit.
2007 / Bucharest, Romania
Bucharest added grand boulevards, huge buildings, post-communist texture, and early confidence that this annual habit had a specific flavour.
2006 / Vilnius, Lithuania
Vilnius continued the Baltic opening era with old-town streets, cold-weather credibility, and the beginnings of ICOM as a repeat institution.
2005 / Riga, Latvia
The opening entry in the institutional record. Riga begins the sequence that later becomes delegates, sanctions, white smoke, and the annual avoidance of normal holidays.