Master Class THE ART OF ASSEMBLING WORLDS: A Laboratory of DIY Cosmologies and Storytelling by Vanina Saracino
General Course Description
“This five-day masterclass approaches artistic practice as a laboratory for speculative thinking. It explores how artistic and curatorial methods can operate as forms of worldbuilding, serving as tools for assembling relations, testing scenarios, and imagining alternative futures.
In The Language of the Night (1989), science fiction writer Ursula K. Le Guin describes “DIY cosmologies” as personal or collective world-systems invented to make sense of reality. Today, imaginative storytelling, often intersecting with scientific inquiry, has become an important strategy within contemporary art and curatorial practice. Artists increasingly employ such narrative frameworks to question dominant structures of knowledge and power, including anthropocentrism, human exceptionalism, economic extraction, and technological acceleration.
In these cosmologies, the future is not approached as prediction but as a diagnostic tool. Hypothetical scenarios illuminate the tensions and asymmetries of the present by extrapolating them into possible worlds. By imagining societies shaped by intensified versions of current conditions (whether ecological collapse, algorithmic governance, authoritarian systems, or deepening inequalities), artists can reveal the underlying dynamics of the moment we inhabit and explore alternative trajectories.
The masterclass is grounded in posthuman and post-anthropocentric thought, engaging with thinkers such as Ursula K. Le Guin, Donna Haraway, and Lynn Margulis, among others. Drawing from feminist science fiction and climate fiction (cli-fi), the course merges speculative storytelling with artistic research and curatorial methodologies. Together, these approaches offer tools for constructing shared cosmologies and reconsidering how worlds are imagined, narrated, and inhabited.
Each day combines visual lectures, screenings of video artworks, readings, group discussions, and collective exercises. Participants will engage with artistic practices that construct hypothetical environments through narrative, research, and systemic thinking. Works by contemporary artists and curators, alongside short stories from science fiction literature, will serve as case studies for understanding how art can imagine and prototype alternative realities.
Through collaborative activities, participants will experiment with speculative writing, scenario building, and visual mapping techniques to develop their own future worlds. Over the course of the week, the group will collectively assemble a conceptual atlas of futures: a shared map of cosmologies, scenarios, and environments. The aim of the masterclass is not the production of finished artworks, but the development of methodologies that participants can carry back into their own artistic practices. ” (Text by courtesy of Vanina Saracino)
Learning Outcomes
Participants will develop new approaches to artistic research through worldbuilding methodologies. The course introduces tools drawn from science fiction, ecological thought, and posthuman perspectives that can expand how artists frame questions about the present and imagine possible futures. Through a series of guided exercises, participants will learn how to use storytelling, scenario construction, and conceptual mapping as creative strategies within their own artistic practices. These methods encourage artists to move beyond linear narratives and engage with complex systems, multiple temporalities, and more-than-human perspectives.
The masterclass also fosters collaborative thinking and collective imagination. Working in groups, participants will experiment with shared forms of authorship and interdisciplinary exchange, developing scenarios that draw on diverse artistic, curatorial, and research-based approaches. By the end of the course, participants will have produced a set of sketches, including short texts, conceptual diagrams, and worldbuilding maps, that can serve as starting points for future artistic projects and research.
General Guidelines
This masterclass is open to artists, curators, researchers, and interdisciplinary practitioners interested in speculative approaches to artistic research. No prior knowledge of science fiction or theoretical frameworks is required. Participants from diverse backgrounds are welcome, particularly those interested in expanding their creative methodologies through storytelling, worldbuilding, and collaborative experimentation. The course encourages a critical openness toward posthuman and ecological perspectives, as well as a willingness to engage actively in group discussions and collective exercises.
Benefits
Methods and Topics of Teaching
The masterclass combines theoretical lectures, screenings, readings, discussions, and hands-on creative exercises. Each day is structured around three main components:
1) Visual Lectures (1–1.5 hours)
Introducing key concepts from feminist science fiction, posthuman theory, and artistic research practices rooted in speculative storytelling.
2) Screenings and Discussion (approx. 1 hour)
Viewing and discussing video artworks
3) Collaborative Workshops (2–3 hours)
Participants engage in practical exercises including collective worldbuilding, scenario construction, and visual mapping of alternative futures.
Throughout the week, participants will contribute to a collective conceptual map of futures.
Program Structure with Daily Course Description
General Information
Duration: September 21 – 25, 2026
Hours: Each day from 10 AM – 4 PM (including several breaks & lunchtime)
Seats: Min: 6 | Max: 20 | Language: English
Fees: There is a one-off registration fee of €50. The participation fee is €900 per person (without accommodation).
The fee is VAT-exempt by the Governing Mayor of Berlin – Senate Chancellery Higher Education and Research pursuant to Paragraph 4 No. (21) (a)(bb) UStG (German Value Added Tax Act).
Your Master Class Instructor
Vanina Saracino (she/they) is an independent curator, film programmer, writer, and lecturer. Her work focuses on theories and art practices that question anthropocentric and binary worldviews from an intersectional perspective, with an emphasis on lens-based and time-based art. Between 2021–2025, Saracino has been serving as an adjunct professor of Experimental Film and Media Art at Universität der Künste (UdK), Berlin. With Adriana Alves, she curated the exhibition I converse with fire at NNKS – North Norwegian Art Center (Lofoten, Norway, 2025), first step in a larger project that reimagines energy through artistic research, titled Solar Kin. She co-curated two editions of the Screen City Biennial: Other Minds at Archenhold Observatory and other venues in Berlin (2022), and Ecologies – Lost, Found and Continued (Stavanger, Norway, 2019), where she also edited the SCB Journal, Vol.2.
With Alessandra Bargamaschi, she co-founded OLHO, a project about contemporary art and cinema initiated in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo (2015–2018) and later shown at Palais de Tokyo and Palazzo Grassi (Teatrino). Saracino has additionally collaborated with Kumu Art Museum and EKKM (Tallinn), TBA21 – Academy, Salzburger Kunstverein (Salzburg), The EYE Film Institute (Amsterdam), and Centro Párraga (Murcia), among others. Saracino has realized residencies at ISCP – International Studio & Curatorial Program (New York City, June–July 2023), Q21 – MuseumsQuartier (Vienna, 2021), Fire Station Artists’ Studios (Dublin, 2019), CPR – Curatorial Program for Research (Reykjavik, Tórshavn, Tromsø, Boden, Luleå, Hyrynsalmi, Helsinki, 2018), GENERATOR – 40mcube/EESAB (Rennes, 2018), and was awarded research visiting grants by ProHelvetia (Switzerland, 2018), Goethe-Institut (NYC, 2018), The Danish Art Foundation (Copenhagen, 2018 and 2017) and Frame Contemporary Art Finland (Helsinki and Turku, 2019), among others. Graduated in Communication Science, Saracino holds an MA in Arts Management (GIOCA, University of Bologna) and in Philosophy and Art Theory (UAB, Autonomous University of Barcelona). Since 2015, she has been a member of IKT – International Association of Curators.
More information on the Vanina Saracino Website.
