Session #1: 15 June, 19:30 – 22:00 CEST (online)

With: Rochita Loenen-Ruiz and Alice Bucknell

During session 1 of Weaving With Worlds, our incredible speakers will lead us through an introduction of Worldbuilding and what envisioning alternative realities might mean for the future of our interdependent and interconnected ecosystems. 

To kick off ‘Weaving With Worlds’ we shall introduce the practice and history of worldbuilding and have a workshop to develop your own story/case. For the writing session, we have invited Filipinx writer Rochita Ruiz, who resides and works in The Netherlands. 

Rochita Loenen-Ruiz

Rochita Loenen-Ruiz is an Octavia Butler’s Scholar and has given numerous workshops on worldbuilding with an ecological focus. Recently, she led the development of the publication ‘Envision Other Futures’ from the Other Futures Festival. Her fiction and non-fiction have been included in a variety of online and print publications. Most recently, her work was included in the Big Book of Modern Fantasy edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer. Besides teaching culture professionals, she works with young people (aged 14-21) to encourage and stimulate creative critical thinking and problem solving through collaborative world-building.

In this short workshop, we will explore aspects of worldbuilding which are part of the speculative fiction writer’s toolbox. The class will be encouraged to work together through worldbuilding exercises. We will also make use of other narrative forms conducive to collaboration. Writing experience is not a must. Don’t forget to bring along your playful side!

Alice Bucknell

Next in line for our exciting programme is North American artist and writer Alice Bucknell. Working primarily through video game engines, she explores interconnections of architecture, ecology, magic, and non-human and machine intelligences. She is currently preparing for the launch of her newest project New Mystics (6.21.21); a critical exploration of the practices of contemporary international worldbuilders.

To help you get familiar with ongoing debates surrounding worldbuilding, Alice will give a crash course on current day practices and histories. Specifically, her talk will explore the evolution of a worldbuilding art practice that has developed in tandem with the technological advances of game engines, artificial intelligence, and internet cultures. Beginning with the work of speculative and science-fiction authors and theorists Octavia Butler, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Donna Haraway, the talk draws links between critical fictioning, early net.art movements including digital gardening, and the landmark contributions of filmmakers including Cao Fei and Harun Farocki, before moving into contemporary worldbuilding practices in contemporary art. 

TO OPEN CALL