Afrofuturistic World-Building with Patchwork
World-building refers to the process of developing a detailed and plausible fictional world for a novel or story. This process is often used in science fiction and fantasy, and video games. Some examples of world-building include Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia, and Alice in Wonderland. Many origin stories and creation myths are examples of world-building including the cosmological “world turtle” that carries the world upon its back. In the Anishinaabe creation story, Gchi-Mikinaak (“The Great Turtle”) offers his back as a base in order to (re)build the world from mud brought up from the bottom of the great waters covering the world. In Hindu mythology, the turtle Kachhapa is the reincarnation of the Hindu deity Vishnu, and carries the weight of the world on its back.
In several articles and presentations I’ve written about the Drexciyan origin myth, a nautical Afrofuturist tale about an underwater civilization that originated from the descendants of pregnant African women thrown overboard from slave ships. This origin myth was the work of a Black American electronic music duo from Detroit, Michigan. Artist Abu Qadim Haqq created The Book of Drexciya, Volumes I and II, which was inspired by the Drexciyan mythos. I was working on another presentation about this when I learned about Patchwork (via MidJourney). Patchwork is a collaborative, AI-supported infinite canvas for creating fictional worlds.
It should be noted that Patchwork is currently in “research preview” mode. When you first join, you’ll be in a “lobby” space with “sandboxes” where people have created portals to their own worlds. Clicking on a portal transports you to a sandbox space, and then, to other worlds that people have created. I followed the above video tutorial and created a new portal and sandbox titled “Bubble Metropolis,” which is the name of a Drexciya album. I wrote prompts in Patchwork using things I heard when listening to the music such as the Lardossian (Giant Squid) Cruiser.
The toolbox on the left side of the screen (in the new sandbox) contains tools for generating new story world entities, for placing new portals, and more. You can place new items by clicking the buttons, then clicking again in the sandbox. At the start I described “Bubble Metropolis” with a prompt that when clicked brings up the “action bar” with a “paint” button to generate images. You can keep images, unlink and delete the ones you don’t want. You can also remix images to generate more of them. I haven’t tried everything in the tool but I’m looking forward to exploring it more.
I used the imagine > character tool to create avatars of James Stinson and Gerald Donald (Arpanet), who were the members of Drexciya. I wrote prompts for each avatar, then ‘“painted” images based on the prompts. Next, I used imagine > place to create prompts and paint images inspired by Drexciyan myth, including song titles such as “Organic Hydropoly Spores” and “Andreaen Sand Dunes.” In the near future I plan on adding more characters and places from Drexciya lore, to see if a new story emerges.
The items placed in the sandbox are called “scraps” that can be selected and dragged around the screen. Clicking on “tell me more” in the action bar can help you brainstorm more details about characters, the worlds they’re in, the images that were generated and more. You can also invite other users to join you in the world you created... like a quilting bee: if you’ve ever created a quilt in real life, some of these terms will be familiar. Connecting the process to real life quilting and remixing (hip hop) would be helpful for more traditional artists and practitioners (ex. educators).
Overall, I think there are so many possibilities for using Patchwork such as generating concepts for graphic novels, screen plays, and films. Although not yet available for wide release I think it’s worth exploring if you have access (become a MidJourney member).