There are many conceptions of what the activity of ‘Worlding’ entails. It encompasses anything from the invention of fantastic cosmologies, utopias or futures you can believe in, to the formation of new reality systems and the active construction of viable systemic alternatives. Footnotes will consider worlding as a way to critically reflect and rethink existing structures and practices within Arts Education.
‘Worlding’ is not automatically a critical practice. It was the project of colonization of the "new world" and extends into the technocratic schemes of restructuring the world according to flows of capital and data accumulation. To move beyond such a world that is already co-opted by satisfying hegemonial claims for (its) order, Footnotes takes the underlying theory of multiple worlds as a point of departure for exercises in Collective Worlding.
LARP inherently involves a form of collective worlding as players give shape to the fictional world and its narration through improvised action. The Footnotes workshops will center this activity by creating a skeleton of the 2045 scenario but letting players ‘flesh out’ their collective vision. It will provide enabling structures within which players can spawn different words and explore their relations, conditions and consequences.
Worlds once spawned have the ability to take a life of their own. But they are fragile beings and need the nurturing from their inhabitants to stay alive. As workshop facilitators it will be your role to care for the maintenance of the worlds and support players to uphold their suspension of disbelief. The best way to help players stay in the fiction is to set an example in taking their collective creation seriously and not breaking with your character except in the designated safe space.