Storyworld Facts
25 Minutes
We're starting off today by making a positive fictional world where all design practice is sustainable. This will be explored by building a “storyworld”; the wider context a narrative takes place in. The storyworld of a movie, for example, is not just the places that the protagonist visits but all the context that makes the world work that way (social, political, temporal). You often aren’t told all of the details of a storyworld.
We'll start with making some sets of "facts" about your storyworld. Each fact should be something that you think would be good for the planet that you aren’t already doing or experiencing with design.
They can be as fantastical and silly as you’d like!
Each of you will finish this activity with a full set of storyworld facts.
step 1 of 3 - individual (in groups of 2 to 4 people)
Take an A4 page and up the top write one thing that would be true in a world where all design practice is sustainable. If you're stuck for somewhere to start, look at the actions and values from your Values and Actions exercise in the last workshop.
step 2 of 3 - Collaborative (in groups of 2 to 4 people)
Pass your paper to the left and take the paper from the
person on your right. Read what the person before you wrote on their sheet.
Write a fact in the next space on the page. It should make sense with the previous one (don’t contradict it).
step 3 of 3 - Collaborative (in groups of 2 to 4 people)
Repeat Step 2, including passing the pages along, until all sheets have six facts.
Read through the lists you've just created. As a group pick which list will be the basis of your shared storyworld for the next few exercises.
Letters from Better Worlds
15 Minutes
If you existed in this storyworld, what would you say to your current real world self? Write a message to yourself on the back of the piece of paper you just used.
Design Fictions
35 Minutes
Next, you will develop a 'design fiction' which helps flesh out this positive fictional storyworld. A design fiction is a piece of graphic design that belongs inside an imaginary world. You can think of it like a film prop. A chocolate wrapper in a film actually lets us know quite a bit about the setting, without sitting us down and telling us about the industrial development and social context of the setting. Is graphic design a hugely different field in your storyworld, similar work conducted in a changed way, or something in between?
step 1 of 1 - collaborative
Pretend that your chosen set of facts are true. As a group, thumbnail out a design project you’d work on in the fictional setting you just wrote about. The form is up to you; it could be a piece of branding, a motion infographic, a small zine, a publication series, or whatever else you desire. Be rough with your work, draft quickly and creatively, and work in whatever medium you’d prefer. Your creation can be as outlandish or realistic as you want. Do not do any extra research. Draft up this fictional project on the provided paper, and write a two sentence 'project pitch'.
Backcasting
20 Minutes
Step 1 of 1 - COLLABORATIVE
On a shared page, discuss and answer these questions as a group:
- How would your design fiction be made? How would each of you be involved in using your skills to make it happen?
- How far away is your storyworld from the present?
- How are your objects of care treated in the design practice of your storyworld?
- What would have changed between now and the storyworld? What cultural ideas, social relationships, material innovations, or economic shifts?
- What are the key obstacles stopping you from being in that storyworld right now?
Strategies
30 Minutes
Step 1 of 2 - INDIVIDUAL
To start developing strategies for change, we first need to ask a few key questions. Write your answers to these down.
- What aspects of your storyworld would you like be real?
- What are your obstacles?
- Which people/groups could you work with to get there?
- Which of your existing skills will help?
- What new knowledge do you need?
- What would you need to do differently?
- What would others need to do differently?
step 2 of 2 - INDIVIDUAL
Create three pathways to action by putting your answers from the previous page into this structure three times:
I want [storyworld aspect] to be real. For that to happen, I need to [overcome an obstacle] by [collaborating with this group] / [using this skill] / [gaining new knowledge about this area] / [changing how these people act] / [other].
Next Step
Share images of your workshop session or feedback with us at hello@betterworlds.now.