bite the dog days that bit you
Low humour in high summer... or is it the other way around? Anyway, here's what happened at Worldbuilding Agency this week.
Latest
week 30 / 2024
This week: in defense of theory, by way of Daoism... and against the imperatives of branding one's work and oneself.
a requiem for "The Future"
What is the object of the verb "to future"? What is its subject? And what are the implications of the answers to those two questions?
feeling out the format
Less a round-up of the last week on Worldbuilding Agency, and more an exploration of what such round-ups will likely look like, on weeks when things have actually happened.
week 29 / 2024
This week: ethnography-in-reverse as an analogy for narrative prototyping... and the infrastructurality of the scroll-wheel?
Week 28 / 2024
This week: the power of moving from mere analogy to full metaphor... and why sometimes one needs to simply start.
Week 27 / 2024
This week: why it's good to end a workshop when there's still energy in the room... and why it's good (for me, at least) to act the fool somewhat.
News
schedule adjustment notice
Hello, worldbuilders!
Just a quick note to let you know: it occurred to me this morning that my spending a bunch of time compiling weeknotes which don't get emailed to you, only to then spend a shorter amount of time two days later writing a short note alerting
hot in the city 2nite
Hello worldbuilders! It's 28°C in Malmö this afternoon, and it's reliably been around that temperature in the afternoon for close to a week now.
I quite like hot weather, really, but a lot of other folk are less keen—and I dare say I'
call it in, take it off
Hello, worldbuilders! It's been quiet here this last week, because around this time on the Sunday previous I started thinking "hmm, I don't feel so great", and by the evening I was feeling (as we Brits say) like death warmed over.
Hell knows what
less magic, more traffic
Hello, worldbuilders! It feels a lot like the roundabout just hasn't stopped spinning over the week just gone—and next week it's The Conference, which means the metaphorical carny will be reaching out his hairy hand to give it another good shove... which means there'
pass the vol-au-vents
Hello, worldbuilders! And welcome to those of you who've signed up in the last few days. Glad you could come—take a chair, get yourself a drink. How are things?
We've got no Actual Announcement this week; I would announce again that I've giving
the circus comes to town
Hello, worldbuilders! This is your weekly newsthingy... and we're gonna start with An Actual Announcement.
Talk and workshop: The Conference, Malmö, Mon 26th August 2024
I will be giving a talk entitled Wisdom for worldbuilders: fictions, futures, fandoms on the morning of Mon 26th August.
Said talk is
null but not void
Hello, worldbuilders! What's been happening at Worldbuilding Agency this week?
No essay or interview
Um, yeah—bit of an absence at the middle of the week, wasn't there? Sorry about that.
There's an interview in the pipe, but it's awaiting approval from
Weeknotes
week 02 / 2025
The winter is deep and dark, and the forest is frightening—but we've fire on which to cook the quarry, and light by which to write the WEEKNOTES. This week, the hunt is begun once more, and the optimal forsworn.
week 01 / 2025
I did not spend this week sat in a bosky grove, reading aloud a saucy missive to my BFF and a nosy goat... but, truth be told, it might have been better if I had?
This week in WEEKNOTES, a well-known lesson is relearned the hard way, and darkness descends upon the academy.
week 52 / 2024
Wandering around the city graveyard, gloved hands deep in the pockets of your long, dark coat—old goths never die, they just start writing WEEKNOTES. This week, biology is hacked (and punked), and a gold-rush refused.
week 51 / 2024
Snoozing on a tree-branch, dreaming of tasty, crunchy mice—OK, so maybe the owl is not the shoo-in candidate for WEEKNOTES spirit-animal that I thought it might be. (That said, NO REGRETS!)
This week, pods have been casted and loose ends tidied, and interiority is explored.
week 50 / 2024
Slaughtering a pig in the village high-street, making barbed asides about "AI" filler images—looks like WEEKNOTES are dealing with the shortest days of the year with the usual cheery bonhomie! This week, a psychopomp is performed, and the commons turn out to be less tragic than you've been told.
week 49 / 2024
Back in a groove of routine, riding the rails to the turn of the year—time to deck the halls with bales of WEEKNOTES! This week, the uneventfulness is all the news that fit to print.
week 48 / 2024
Kneeling on the tiled floor, offering thanks and libations to the gods of ablutions—pray wash away the sin of impatience with WEEKNOTES! This week, many new projects are named, and the egg prepares to enter the incubator.