Online workshop “Public Fictions: Methods for (World)Building Different Futures” with Ann Mbuti

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 captions

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.

This is the registration for online participation. Do you want to participate on-site in Basel? Register here instead: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/futuress1/2333111

The Engaging Publics series

This event is part of the free hybrid Engaging Publics workshop series exploring community-based research from facilitation, process-documentation, engaged writing, and more.

Registrations will open a month ahead.

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

Except for 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.

This program is made possible thanks to generous grants from the Culture Department of the Kanton Basel-Stadt and the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia.