© Illustration by Paula Salces
Solarpunk: from genre to movement
Solarpunk is a literary and visual movement that originated in Brazil in the early 2000s; it rejects dystopian pessimism and, instead, puts forward images of renewable-powered futures that challenge us to alter our social habits. While the name builds on the -punks of Cyberpunk and Steampunk, it resists the technological determinism of the former and the Eurocentric imaginary of the later. It is punk in the sense that it insists on societal change at the highest levels.
“Solarpunk is a literary movement, a hashtag, a flag, and a statement of intent about the future we hope to create.”
Elvia Wilk, e-flux journal
Solarpunk entered the public eye as a short story collection, Solarpunk: Histórias Ecológicas e Fantásticas em um Mundo Sustenavel, published in Brazil in 2012, but quickly morphed into an online art genre. Digital artists rendered Art-Nouveau-inspired and plant-filled cities and posted them on Tumblr. This small movement started to spread, with several academic and journalistic investigations appearing. This emerging movement pushed Ellery Studio to launch SPF in 2018 that brought together scientists, researchers, artists.
“[Although radical, it’s] not radically impossible. Indeed, many of the technologies and practices that solar punks draw into their imaginings already exist: solar and other renewable energy, urban agriculture, or organic architecture and design. Like sci-fi authors, solar punks remix the present to produce an alternative future.”
Dr. Jennifer Mae Hamilton, The Conversation
Sources
Andrew Dana Hudson, “On the Political Dimensions of Solarpunk,” (October 14, 2015) [link]
Elvia Wilk, “Is Ornamenting Solar Panels a Crime?” e-flux architecture (April 9, 2018) [link]
Jennifer Hamilton, “Explainer: ‘solarpunk’, or how to be an optimistic radical,” (July 19, 2017) [link]
re:publica 2018, “SolarPunk and going Post-Post-Apocalyptic,” (June 6, 2018) [link]
SOLARPUNKS, “Solarpunk Anthology Translation,” (August 14, 2017) [link]
Imagination and Climate Futures Initiative [link]