Worldbuilding Workshop with Matt Bell

Constructed Languages, Box-Words and Neologisms: Ways of Naming (and Making) the World

Acclaimed science fiction and fantasy writer Ursula K. Le Guin once wrote that "one of the virtuosities of science fiction is the invention of box-words that the reader must open to discover a trove of meaning and implication. The imaginative leaps involved in decoding such inventions and appreciating their wit can give a reader much pleasure." In this workshop, we'll further consider how the languages we use to describe our world—or to invent new ones—influences the possibilities we imagine: What can we discover about our reality by constructing new languages for invented worlds? Might new terms and new kinds of naming make more promising futures easier to conceive and achieve? What is lost in translation between languages and how can worldbuilding-based practices help bridge that gap?

Hosted by the Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics, the ASU Worldbuilding Initiative invites all members of our community—at ASU and beyond it—to come together in mutual inspiration, communal thinking and imaginative play. In each of our workshops, audience members will be encouraged to engage in worldbuilding alongside our guest presenters, inventing new ways of imagining and interacting with the world around us.   

This hybrid event is free and open to the public, in addition to the ASU community. It will be held on the Tempe Campus and simultaneously live streamed via Zoom, with full participation in the night's activities possible online or in-person.

Our guest lecturers for this event will be ASU's Tyler Peterson and Ro Smith.