Brief: using scenario methods to design one or more storyworlds that can be used for a physical narrative and possibly a prehearsal (or the combination of both); the physical narrative should be light and portable, to be used in a hotel room and an exhibition in Austria and Cluj in September and October, and possibly in Belgium in the autumn. This all sounds easy enough, until the second part of the brief is introduced: the process should be akin to lucid dreaming…

lucid dreaming: awareness of the fact that you’re dreaming

• first thing to do is to broaden your awareness even before you fall asleep
• asleep, dreaming - becoming aware of dreaming, observing it as it comes, without interfering
• gradually if you want to you can begin to steer it.
• make your own reality

translation into the scenario process

• opening the process to different ways of knowing - pre-rational, somatic, interpersonal, emergent…
• non-predictive methods: KPU-framework, used to structure thinking about the present and Causal Layered Analysis, designed to probe into deeper cultural and mythological origins of scenarios
• interspersed with processes from improvisation, creative writing, surrealism and other techniques not usually associated with a futures exercise

for participants:

• the methods used shouldn’t really matter. you also don’t have to know exactly what happens next: as in dreams, go with the flow and try to be as open as possible.
• today is less about 'understanding exactly what’s going on' and more about trusting your gut feelings and unconscious mind * letting ideas flow from you and through you - try not to block anything that comes to mind. do not worry about anything seeming silly, stupid, or unrelated - nothing you do or say today can fall into those categories.
• if something feels uncomfortable or makes you insecure, try letting go of these feelings and approach every exercise with curiosity - “the beginners’ mind”; if it doesn’t work after a while, feel free to step out and take some distance for a while, then come back…
• let your mind loose and watch your inhibitions melt away
• trust yourself, trust the people around you, trust the process

Process: scenario_building_as_lucid_dreaming

We know that there are a few objects in this world:

• shoes
• soft wool
• a heavy relationship with a father and family (not mother)
• roses
• mint
• empty void
• a car-key for a big car that can move lots of people
• ice cube (melting)
• ink and paint dribbling on pebbles
• a box
• sparkling powder
• dragonfly wings
• small mechanical devices
• bottle of gin
• a big and heavy photocopier

Knowing about the few objects originating in the world, there are a few things we might assume:

• it looks like a Victorian scene on Brighton beach
• there is a bar or multiple bars, where brightly coloured gin cocktails are important
• dragonflies have wings
• dragonflies might be larger than in our world, perhaps helicopter-sized
• the smells are heavy and sticky - a mix of shoes and roses…
• there might be an apothecary on a ship (a ferry?) at sunrise
• people might be sipping gin at sunset
• there is a magic box, that can bring us things we want at any moment: the world has magical underpinnings and changing situations
• there is a dusty grave
• tiny mechanical insects dance on an ice-cube
• one family lives in this world, they are cobblers with a shoe factory
• its' a non-plastic world
• people take drugs, sparkly ones
• there might be a large building, something like Cleopatra's palace
• there is an x-ray station and drivable photocopiers, like giant cars
• the world is predominantly translucent, except for the shoes
• there are many large soft beds around, mobile, perhaps in cars. mother might be in the bed, with a bottle of gin.
• tools (some rusty) are scattered around the place
• there is a hornets' nest
• nanotechnology rules the world
• it looks a bit like Neal Stephenson's Diamond Age

About the world:

• Is it an apocalyptic world?
• Are there colours in the world?
• What happened to the sun and the atmosphere?
• How long is one day?
• What's wrong with this world?
• Would we like to live in this world? If yes, what would we recognise?
• Can we float in the water without getting poisoned?
• What is the purpose of fixed places?
• The places that smell of shoes and roses, are they dangerous?

About the inhabitants:

• What is the social interaction like? Communication, interrelation?
• Is this society autocratic or anarchic?
• Are there humans around? Do they talk? What colour are their eyes?
• How long can you sleep?
• Whose grave is it? Why is it so dusty? Is the land poisoned? Why is no one there?
• For whom are the magical powers?
• What are the senses in this world?
• Who is drinking the cocktails?
• What are the consequences of alcohol and drugs?

About the things in the world:

• What infrastructure is around?
• Do the roads lead to bars, or to Cleopatra's palace? Was the palace rebuilt or discovered?
• Why are the tools rusty? Are they used for fun or work?
• Are the magical powers fluid or mechanical? What is the technology behind the magic?
• Why are there large photocopiers?
• Where are the copies?
• How far can the mechanical helicopter fly?
• What's the colour of the shoes?
• Are roses and mint real or camouflage?
• Are there elephants, and if so, what colour?
• Is the grass marvelous?
• What are the sizes and relationships between the objects?
  • How big is the ice cube?
  • How big are the dragonflies?
• What is the brand of gin?

Known, assumed and unknown parts of the world

We have landed on the endless peninsula with a shoreline that is neither land nor sea. The shoreline is sometimes smooth, other times rough, with waves breaking on rocks. The atmosphere is thick and woollen in this land of sunrise and twilight. Light is heavy and laden with golden dust that sediments on hidden graves. When darkness comes, the world sparkles. The air fills with mechanical insects collecting the sparkling dust as drugs. Aside from the buzzing of the insects at night, there is an eery noiseless quality to the peninsula. Occasionally the silence is pierced by small, medium and large voices, by faint dripping, drifting and echoing sounds.

Things are built rather than grown, there are canals lit by giant candelabra, the rolling hills are made of shoes. There are very few plants and animals around, and only in secret pockets of nature. Living flora and fauna, as well as and ancient human graves are sought after by mechanical dragon-flies, scanning across fragmented and dispersed nature. An apothecary of species is hovering above the world, swirling through the mist on giant dragonfly-propellers. In the apothecary, intricate nano-machinery works on replicating rapidly disappearing lifeforms and maintain the populations’ health. The world is criss-crossed with helicopters’ landing strips allowing the dragonfly apothecary to circle in on any species in need of replication. One of the endangered species are humans - shabby, clean, healthy and curious creatures that drift aimlessly, often wearing only shoes.

The landscapes are surreal (from the dreamers’ point of view), unnatural and complicated. Everything is in motion. Infrastructure and places float to you. The movement is mechanical, but also fluid - an insectoid dance of machines and liquids. The majority of floating places are bars, saunas (actually hornets’ nests) and huge soft beds shaped like fluffy duvets. The land is covered in scattered tools: both newly built and frequently used, as well as old, rusty, forgotten tools.

Across the floating peninsula hover many roads, all leading from the many gin distilleries to dusty cocktail bars. On the roads drive giant photo-copiers that print spacious two-dimensional cars. One of the strangest contraptions on the peninsula is a floating palace that looks x-rayed under sunlight. From outside it appears like a translucent box standing on an ice-cube. From inside its walls are built of wood and xrays, its windows are covered by leather. Its origins are unclear (there are conspiracy theories about whether it had been discovered or rebuilt). In the present there are only parts of the palace in use. One part is a news-agency, another -of course- a cocktail bar, from which all other bars are replicated.

• Cobblers
• Humans
• Survivors (of whatever happened)
• Synthesized, gelatinous x-ray jellyfish
• Ants
• The Owl People

Outward characteristics:

• Shape-shifters
• Tall
• Clean
• Smelling of Roses&Mint
• Brown and Colourful
• Sparkly
• Skinny

Character traits:

• Dreamy
• Tactile
• Obsessive
• Curious
• Vain
• Agile, twitchy with access to boat-hooks
• Tolerant & respectful
• Survivors
• Addicted to continuous medical treatment & cleaning

Social structures:

• Small groups
• Moving on, nomadic

• Imbibe, sleep, drink, doze
• Drinking cocktails in the sunset
• Flying dragonflies, drinking gin, hiding in hornets nest
• Live & have fun
• Sleep a lot, hike, produce gin
• Talk to each other
• Fix xray machines
• Climbing trees of shoes
• Make sugar out of anything they can find while drinking gin
• Look for things to talk about them
• Sleep while healing

• detectors to find things to talk about
• tools made by imagination: they manifest when needed & vanish when not needed
• vacuum mechanical tanks with suction devices to collect dust and finger plaster
• carefully crafted hand tools
• nanotech tools
• replicators and planned devices (can't make life though)
• crystal sets
• algae & mushrooms
• carefully crafted hand tools
• magnets
• needles
• gas burners
• gloves with extended fingers
• bag of spanners
• magic indistingushers (advanced tech)
• egg beaters
• self folding origami
• ratchets
• syncopators
• parts of tools (modular toolkits)
• photocopiers which act as 3D printers too: drawings and thoughts can be printed (brain-fab)

• on a boat
• in a tree
• on a dragonfly's wing
• melting like an ice cube
• in a box
• among inhabitants, shifting shape and identity
• in the middle of the world
• moving in a two-dimensional, photocopied car
• outside of the world, taking an external, comicbook-style perspective
• in the tower in the woolen clouds, making photocopies of your favourite moments
• operating mechanical devices

Problems include; Forced idleness due to shapeshifting, inability to use handcrafted tools with shifted hands, Origami Identities, Distractions, heirarchy (for Owls), boredom, past life issues, using tools, gradual loss of imagination, scavenging of raw materials, skinny, addictions, sustenance during sleep and healing.

Dreams and Hopes include; Loss of Vanity, Living the High Life, Shrinking, multiple identities, consistency (for shapeshifters), flights of fancy, riches of the past, tolerance, freedom, peace, cleaning, moving, swarm dreams (the ants), being able to hold conversations with tools (the ants)

Machines do (most of) the Hard Work, there is a herirachy of responsibility (related to resources), fluid role rotation (esp. shapeshifters) illict trade in photocopied identities, atmosphere monitoring, library focused on story collecting, health maintainance (for body, imagination and semi-living tools), Transient Minority Authority (for temporary fluctuations), Bodyshapers Guild, Oracles for providing inproation, Deity Generators, Distillery Network.