Building New Worlds: The Star of the Universe Model
“To create change, we must build a new model, one that supersedes the existing model”, as the American science fiction author Ursula K. Le Guin says: “To oppose something is to maintain it… You must go somewhere else.”
In speculative design, design is a tool to speculate on how things could be—to imagine possible futures.
One way to stimulate the imagination is, as Ursula Le Guin suggests, to move somewhere else. To do so, we can start by playing with reality, creating a new one— and this new reality can take the form of a universe.
We know universes from literature, such as The Lord of the Rings, where the universe consists of different locations, like the Shire and Mordor, and various types of beings, such as Elves, Hobbits, and Humans, each with their own roles—Gandalf or Frodo. We also know it from video games. For instance, Minecraft, where an entire world are built and explored.
There are many approaches and methods for starting to build universes. Below, you’ll find a model, Star of the Universe, which can serve as an entry point for playing with and building universes. It can be used as a method in workshops or dreaming circles, where participants play with alternative ways the world could develop, and engage in debates about what kind of futures we want (and do not want).
The Star of the Universe model can help you sketch out the first defining lines of a world in a fun and intuitive way.
Understanding the Model
The model involves answering five simple questions, which together provide an overall image of a world or universe. The star shape of the model indicates that each of the five spikes or questions is integral to the whole.
The five questions are:
- How? What is the style or aesthetic of the world you are creating?
- Why? What values, morals, worldviews, or themes dominate in this world?
- When? What historical context or period frames the world or universe you are imagining?
- Who? What existences, characters, or entities play central roles in this world?
- Where? What are the geographical or spatial boundaries of the world you are building?
How to Use the Tool. You can, of course, dive straight into answering these questions one by one, writing your answers on the poster as you go along. You can also use the picture and word cards available for download below to stimulate your creativity and imagination. Words often carry different meanings for different people, so combining pictures and words can reveal new meanings, mental images, and ideas—especially when working in groups.
If it is difficult to get started, then ask someone to come up with a character, a time period or ethical point of view etc, and place that as a locked answer on the poster, and ask the other question in relation to that fixed answer. Sometimes our creativity needs restrictions to think out of the box.
When you have answered all the questions, and you have a shared mental image of the world you will be telling your stories from, you can start defining plots, story characters, storylines etc. Building a universe or world this can inspire to all sorts of storytelling, being films, novels, videogames, tv shows, designscenarios.
If you are curious about this approach, get your hands on the book ‘Håndbog i universskabelse’ of Jakob Ion Wille, Simon Jon Andreasen og Gunnar Wille (for now only in Danish)
