WORLDING : A Guide for Creators in Changing Times

Author: Ian Cheng

The arts: general issues

Published on 8 September 2026 by cosmogenesis in the United Kingdom.

Paperback | 168 pages
198 x 129 | 180g

What is a World? How do I create one? How do I keep it alive? And when should I set it free?There is a new art emerging, ripe for our strange and complex times: Worlding – the practice of creating dynamic systems that take on a life of their own.

Now in print for the first time, WORLDING is an essential handbook for artists, founders, parents, and creators of all kinds. Drawing on Cheng's experience as an artist building multi-agent simulations, the book offers practical methods for making worlds by channeling four creative personas inside every creator: the Director, Cartoonist, Hacker, and Emissary.

This edition gathers Cheng's original writings on Worlding, alongside a foreword by Venkatesh Rao and the Worlding Raga dialogues between the two.

Part psychological reflection, part creative guide, WORLDING explores ways to navigate darkness and sustain agency in a time of unraveling old realities and emerging weird ones.