Imagine the world you want to live in. Then write it into existence. A hands-on workshop using storytelling to spark real change.
What if the stories we tell could change the way things are? This workshop invites you to find out. Through creative writing and world-building exercises, you’ll explore how fiction can be a powerful tool for tackling urgent challenges—either planetary ones, from climate to justice to collective futures, or the ones that you often encounter in your projects.
Drawing on visionary frameworks developed by activists, artists, and storytellers, you will be guided through exercises that help you imagine and build the world you want to fight for.
After the workshop, you’ll leave with creative tools and concrete methods you can carry forward and apply to your own work. The workshop’s aim is to raise a sense of what becomes possible when imagination meets purpose. No prior writing experience needed.
Event language: English (with close-captions for online participants).
Ann Mbuti (she/her) is an independent writer specializing in contemporary art. She contributes as an art critic to various international magazines, with her essays featured in different exhibition catalogs such as those for the German Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, documenta15, and the Kochi-Muziris Biennale. Her book Black Artists Now was published in October 2022 by the German publishing house C.H. Beck. In 2024, Mbuti was appointed professor of Process Design at HyperWerk, Basel Academy of Art and Design in Switzerland, where her work centers on the role of design in shaping coexistence. Her research explores “making publics” and the processes through which things are made public and how publics are formed.
Registrations open a month ahead
On-Site event info:
Open doors:
The venue will be open 30 minutes ahead. Please make sure to arrive at least 10 minutes early, as the workshop starts on time due to the hybrid format.
Venue address:
DOCK
Klybeckstrasse 29, 4005 Basel, Switzerland
Accessibility:
Please note that DOCK is only partly accessible by wheelchair: The toilets are not wheelchair-accessible, and there are no parking spots at the venue. We apologize for this exclusion and will make sure to do better in the future.
This event is part of the Engaging Publics hybrid workshop series exploring community-based research from facilitation, process-documentation, engaged writing, and more.
All workshops are free and open to all. Registrations will open a month ahead.
Except the on-site-only workshop in November, all events can be accessed online via Zoom or on site at DOCK cultural space in Basel, Switzerland.
June 20, 2026 | 3:30–6:30 pm CEST | Workshop | online and at DOCK Basel
Practices of Regard: Images, Memories, Words
with Darcy Alexandra (she/her), Visual Anthropologist, Filmmaker & Poet
Sep 5, 2026 | 3:30–6:30 pm CEST | Workshop | online and at DOCK Basel
Public Fictions: Methods for (World)Building Different Futures
with Ann Mbuti (she/her), Independent Writer
Sep 19, 2026 | 3:30–6:30 pm CEST | Workshop | online and at DOCK Basel
Working with the Archive: Reflecting on Collective Research
With Hybrid Project Space, Interdisciplinary Collective
Oct 17, 2026 | 3:30–6:30 pm CEST | Workshop | online and at DOCK Basel
Letters I Never Sent: Yearning in Science Fiction
With Sherida Kuffour(she/her), Art Director, Design Educator & Publisher
Oct 31, 2026 | 3:30–6:30 pm CET | Workshop | online and at DOCK Basel
The Language of Art: Celebrating Connection Through Doing Art
With Habib Afsar (he/none), Expressive Arts Practitioner, Relational Artist & Public Health Physician
Nov 07, 2026 | 3:30–6:30 pm CET | Workshop | on-site only at DOCK Basel
Co-Producing Publics: Questioning, Performative Acts, and Temporary Interventions
With Circuit Sessions Collective
and Eva Chen (she/her) Scenographer & Art Educator
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