Artifacts from a Matriarchal Future
Women around the world are collectively arriving at the same conclusion right now: it's time for matriarchy. The Epstein files, ongoing wars, right-wing governments systematically dismantling women's rights around the world—all of it is converging into this shared realization.
Here's the challenge: matriarchy feels impossible to most of us. We've gotten very good at critiquing patriarchy, at naming what's broken. Imagining what replaces it? That's the hard part.
Speculative design gives us a way in. It makes the unimaginable tangible.
In this workshop, you'll create a physical artifact from a world where matriarchy is the norm. Maybe it's currency from a care economy, a report card from a school that values different intelligences, or product packaging from a company accountable to seven generations ahead. Whatever form it takes, your artifact will exist in a world organized around care, relationship, and collective power.
I'll share the methodology I used to create Seneca Falls 2048—a speculative project featuring artifacts from the 200th anniversary of the first women's rights convention. Then you'll make your own artifact from a matriarchal future.
Think of it as practicing the future. Building muscle memory for worlds we can barely imagine yet desperately need.
What you'll do:
Learn how speculative design makes futures tangible
Work with matriarchal wisdom as a creative framework
Create a physical artifact from a matriarchal future
Share your work with the group
Leave with ideas for bringing this method to your community
What you'll need:
Paper, markers, scissors—whatever craft materials you have. Suggested materials here.
Willingness to imagine radically
2 hours of uninterrupted time
Who this is for: Organizers, activists, artists, strategists, educators, and anyone exhausted by patriarchy who wants to build something else.
About the facilitator:
Tracee Worley is the founder of Radical Futures, a speculative design studio working at the intersection of collapse and imagination. Her work helps organizations sense into what this moment is asking of us. She believes that matriarchy isn't nostalgia—it's a way to face the volatility of our times by grounding ourselves in care, relationship, and collective power.