WeTransfer launches Networked Worlds memo

WeTransfer, the most creative platform for sharing ideas, and co-matter, a Berlin-based research and strategy studio, today release a new work of research called ‘Networked Worlds’. The sixty page zine is available to download as a PDF for free via WeTransfer. 

‘Networked Worlds’ focuses on worlding as a creative strategy in the early 21st century. As a response to the multiple crises of our time – a crisis of reality, agency and traditional sensemaking structures – worlding is an emergent creative practice of re-imagining and prototyping alternative futures. 

Hyper aware of the rules and power structures of dominant narratives and infrastructures, worlding has become a vital strategy for artists and creatives to experiment with alternative futures and render the conditions of the present visible in order to change them. Worlding as such is different from worldbuilding. While the latter has been established by writers, directors, set designers in creating believable imaginary worlds (think Star Wars, Lord of the Rings or the Marvel Universe), worlding signifies the continuous, ever-evolving, collaborative effort of making worlds emerge rather than creating a closed universe by an individual master creator. 

Using a variety of technologies, from AI to blockchain to photogrammetry, 3D engines and ancient rituals, the worlds resulting from this practice are an enthralling mixture of the closeup and the systemic. 

The projects featured in this memo were selected from an Open Call hosted by WeTransfer earlier this year that resulted in more than 380 submissions from around the world. Following an in-depth selection process with a focus on showcasing a rich diversity of projects that apply worlding as a creative strategy, the ten selected projects were invited to participate in a collaborative research process that resulted in the memo. These projects were:

• Morphogenic Angels: Chapter 1, by Keiken

• post-office, by Bryan Wolff and the post-office cooperative

• Special Fish, by Elliott Cost

• Into the Void, by Limbo Accra

• Other Spring, by ZZYW 

• LIOS Labs

• Tale of the Mammoth Goddess, by Wendi Yan

• The Orfelia, by Queer Futures Collective

• Waluigi’s Purgatory, by dmstfctn 

• When we Love, by Chia Amisola

While the formats of these worlds featured are diverse - from a queer nightclub experience set in the year 2054 to interactive live performances, desert retreats and collectively owned physical spaces - they’re all attempts at creating reality through the act of worlding. 

Networked Worlds is a 60 page research memo created by WeTransfer in collaboration with Berlin-based research and design studio co–matter. 

This is the third and final part of Networked Culture, a series of publications that explore the effects of networked technologies on the creative process. The previous two memos of the series are Networked Counterculture (2023) and Networked Reality (2023).

Download PDF memo via WeTransfer HERE

About WeTransfer

WeTransfer, the most creative platform for sharing ideas, makes it easy for creative professionals and creators to share and distribute content, and collaborate with teams. With an average of 80 million monthly active users in 190 countries, WeTransfer is a certified B Corporation™ and a long-time champion of using business as a force for good. Since its founding in 2009, the company has donated up to 30% of its advertising real estate to raise awareness for artists, creative work, and the world’s most pressing issues. In 2021, it launched the Supporting Act Foundation to support emerging artists through bursaries and grants.