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(noun) A science fiction genre imagining an optimistic future where technology is eco-centric and community-centric.
(noun) An aesthetic (so far) incorporating aspects of Art Noveau, Primitivist patterns, jugaad style innovations from the non-Western world, Miyazaki/ Studio Ghibli sensibilities, re-usage of materials and Steampunk sailor/frontier chic with green energy replacing steam.[i] Light plays a big role in the Solarpunk aesthetic, often implying hope, purpose and connection to nature.[ii]
(noun) A movement that-
Places ecology, anarchism and justice as its guiding principles[iii]
Generates optimism and resistance in order to build a future that is powered by renewable energy, connected to nature and committed to equality among all beings.
(adjective) A person who places nature at the foundation of being and structure, and celebrates the decentralized usage of science, technology, finance and culture to further protect all beings.
Epochs and eras only appear as such when we look in the rear view mirror. Paris in the 20s, the psychedelic/spiritual homecomings of the 60s and 70s, globalization in the 90s. Did the people existing, creating and contributing then- realize the full scale of what they were building? How individual voices and lifestyle choices can become defining moments in culture, or cement decades of consequence? Often we emerge, unrealized, from our own histories. We need others with the certainty of data or expertise to name, populate and validate patterns we have lived. To say that- this was a time of global travel or of hyper individualization; a time of curvy over skinny or of self-help over therapy.
In contrast, movements call upon us to claim agency. To embody an identity, learn that language, find our people and take up space. Movements can be fueled on the ferocity of NOW- because by their nature they involve physical actions, connections and voices. A movement has a name, ethics, a language, a manifesto, an aesthetic- but most crucially- a community. People who choose to stand in the fiery uncertainty of what might happen, armed only with searing certainty of what is worth fighting for, regardless of the result.
Solarpunk is one such movement, ever burgeoning since 2008[iv] and struggling as all true things do- to keep itself free of jargonized misuse, jaded naysaying or worst of all- not being named at all. So although there are a number of articles on what Solarpunk is and why you should love it, we figured one more can’t hurt. For the landscape in our rear view mirror has widened, these last 16 years. And looking back, we notice roots going deeper, voices calling louder, and goals shared by many more than we perhaps realized. The one thing that hasn’t (and is not likely to) change- is that “Solarpunk is in progress, just like the world it tries to reconnect us to.”[v]
Why Solar?
The solar in Solarpunk stands for solar or other alternative energies that society could be built around. Solar energy is also a decentralized resource one cannot hoard and is accessible to all- both of which are fundamental Solarpunk values. However, it is a touch more emotional for us as carbon based life-forms. The clarity and light of the sun shines in deliberate contrast to the chaotic gloominess of dystopic futures. With all life originating from its presence, the sun in Solar is also the “utopic will which (literally) farms hope.”[vi]
Why Punk?
The punk side of Solarpunk is rather central to its nature, as it demands that we take a critical lens to all historical, current and future systems. It asks us to practice rebellion by rejecting the non-regenerative, degrading and non-service oriented components of collective systems. Our current capitalist/individualist/doomerist frameworks make it far easier to be disconnected, over consumptive, under nourished and jaded. It is why building the momentum of any movement today is tricky- most of us have come to see financial freedom and personal healing as the peak of what is possible in our lives.
Of course, these are worthy goals for every one of us. They also don’t have points of closure- is there a point where one feels financially stable enough to actually rest? Is there a point where one is “fully healed”? And while we continue chasing those elusive and individualistic goals, every other dream is laid to the wayside or kept for some mythical post retirement time- often considered naïve, impossible, over emotional, irrational, or inaccessible. Have you ever noticed that most of these are dreams of having community, growing food, tending to animals, resting, creating/ building beautiful things, running free, caring for those who need it or living in accordance with seasons/ cycles of the moon? Ask elders around you too. The vast majority of us share these dreams- but somehow, we’ve collectively agreed to keep them quiet.
And so these are some of the ways of being punk in Solarpunk- by reclaiming those dreams.
Knowing that even if we feel ‘totally healed,’ it wouldn’t change the suffering that is in the world because of systemic failure. And so, resistance.
Seeing that our anger has a purpose, when we have a plough to yoke it to and a mountain to take down. And so, refusing the easier choice, and refusing despair.
Seeing that despair around what cannot be changed collectively is manufactured, and feeds only those systems that don’t want to grow. And so, hope- in repairing what we were always told could never be fixed.
Realizing that even if we achieved financial freedom, no amount of money in an account could tackle the scale of what we need to collectively change together. And so, reaching out, connecting and collaborating with others.
Knowing that we are nature, and that must mean we too have seasons. And so, slowing down.
Knowing that we are interdependent, and that must mean we actually do care about the pond that dried up, the rain that didn’t come, the forest that was felled and the birds that froze in their sleep. And so, making room for eco-grief.
Why Nature?
While climate change is certainly humbling many of us, the dynamic between humans and nature has long been imbalanced. Somewhere in our development, we began to separate ourselves- physically, mentally, evolutionarily, socially and spiritually. In fact, we rewarded those who were most separate, awarding them most power. It’s one of the most fundamental errors we made in our development journey, because to live in denial of interdependence is to cast oneself out of the web of nature’s care.
We’re now at a point of no longer being able to ignore the interdependent nature of our biosphere and truly, all life. As Vogt brilliantly wrote in 1948- “We must abandon all thought of living unto ourselves. We form an earth-company, and the lot of the Indiana farmer can no longer be isolated from that of the Bantu… This year’s wheat from Australia’s eroding slopes may flare into a Japanese war three decades hence.”[vii] Observing nature, and allowing our communities, systems, designs and interventions to reflect its behaviours is probably the best way to stop digging ourselves into a hole. It’s also probably why all Solarpunk manifestos call for radical shifts in how human beings relate to nature.
Why Diversity?
In the spirit of observing nature, what immediately comes to mind is diversity. Nature does not mono crop, nor does it grow the same things every season. The healthiest ecosystems are those that have multiple players at as many levels of the food chain as possible. The applications of this concept are many-fold. Imagine a world where energy is captured based on which natural resource is readily available locally. Imagine that waste is filtered and processed locally into innovative new materials and products because the pressure of handling the waste is not left to a single system or community. Imagine that communities have active participation from people of all races, genders, castes, creeds, sexualities, ages and levels of physical ability/ disability. Imagine having multiple sources of income in different currencies.
Depending on the time of the year, you might do some work online, grow and sell some food, hone your craft and exhibit, and work seasonally as a firefighter. Diversification could be key to surviving ecological crises, because we need to be innovative and quick in building resilience. The quickest evolution and innovation in nature happens on edges- where water turns to sand, where forests turn to grassland, where communities and individuals meet. And so the solution might not be to wait for some amorphous, supposedly representational and neutral set of central bodies to get it together. Many individuals, habitats, communities and systems meeting is the best friction for generating hacks, ideas, actions and change. This is why Solarpunk “also crucially implies that the landscape of our collective imagination is not a monoculture; it should be an abundant ecosystem.”[viii]
Why Tech?
The integration of technology in Solarpunk is often what differentiates it from other ecologically centered movements. A reasonable ratio, considering the developmental pathways humanity has chosen in the last few centuries. Technology has been central to some of our greatest wins and challenges as a species. However, in and of itself it is neutral, simply a tool. It is the people making, funding, administering and profiting off of it that need monitoring; a population so vast it is easier to blame the technology itself. A Solarpunk world would aim to subvert this misguided rejection by integrating decentralization, data and transaction transparency, localized community voting/ funding and much more. Our real challenge today is to figure out how to build and maintain consensus on how to harness technology.
Today, we define technology as the application of knowledge/ science towards practical goals. We can also see how we used simple observation was what helped us to develop tools, pulleys, wheels, plumbing systems, telescopes, clocks and architectures. Part of what Solarpunk is provoking is a return to the observational framework in the development and usage of technology. More specifically, the observation of current states of nature; its fluctuations and cycles being equally critical to our ability to adapt, tackle ecological crises, and share resources amongst increasing populations of the earth.
Interestingly enough, observation does still guide the financial and developmental thrust of technology- but it is observation of human behavior and needs. We find many wins in medical, financial, infrastructural and knowledge technologies. However, we are also susceptible to the technology itself because it is designed for us, and thus invades our lives quite easily. It is changing how the physical body and the brain are being used, and for how long.
And so Solarpunk aims to restore balance between the usage of the body and technology. For even as technology eases our labours, we must not de-labour the body and render it useless before its time. As technology eases and serves one function, we must still build and nurture that function in our brains and bodies through other means, especially if we mean to maintain our relevance in the face of evolution.
Why Nostalgia?
While Solarpunk looks to the future quite firmly, its values, ethics and aesthetic already reflect a connection to the past. If we claim to value all beings, we will have to contend with systemic erasure and violence against certain communities/ species. If we wish to improvise in response to climate change, we will need to lean on what we know from our elders. If we wish to use innovative tech interventions in nature, we will need to know the history of intervention impact.
We see this too in the Miyazaki-an shades of the Solarpunk aesthetic. There is a reverence for the hand-made and element blessed, for simple labors and slower cycles of time. The Primitivist patterns claim a rootedness in ancient symbology and pattern, while the jugaad aesthetic incorporates the usage of the old to confront the new (Jugaad is a colloquial Hindi and Urdu word that describes a makeshift or DIY mentality). Even the upgraded Edwardian/ Victorian elements speak for themselves, though perhaps out of habit.
After all, “the innovative thinkers who develop a new framework still do so from within an existing scaffolding that structures and limits their imaginations. Over time, the old framework recedes, and the new one is elaborated.”[ix] As evolved variations of the Solarpunk aesthetic and narrative emerge, we become more and more aware that this is an ever changing movement. We know that in 2008, the term solarpunk was used in a blog post titled "From Steampunk to Solarpunk" by an anonymous author, after which the term ‘solarpunk’ started to pass through several voices all over the world. It’s harder to know if there’s a longer and more diverse oral history, or indeed how many other movements and individuals were describing something quite similar, but from within an existing scaffolding.
We are compiling a historical timeline (Twitter thread) where we invite all contributions and resources to continue the process of tracking Solarpunk roots and voices.
And so?
It seems more important than ever then, to acknowledge that we stand on the shoulders of those before us. We need a space to weave the hopes and creations of those who were envisioning a Solarpunk world without knowing it. A space to add the threads of all our dreams and labours to the tapestry.
Solarpunk, then, is and does many things. It is “at once a vision of the future, a thoughtful provocation, and an achievable lifestyle.”[xi] It is a person dedicated to the building of a Solarpunk world, whether by buying, earning, creating or celebrating regeneratively. It “seeks to rewild our imaginations, captivate us with success stories from the near future, ease our psychic burden, and motivate us toward constructive action.”[xii]
And, we might add- it is a bridge we are all building; standing on and holding up, suspended between the past and future, familiar and unknown; somewhere between thought and action.
*We have written this article to share different perspectives and our learnings on Solarpunk. While it is the result of collecting and contemplating on many resources, we welcome all feedback, critiques, requests for additions and even more resources, as we hope this can be a useful collective resource in the long run.
What is Solarpunkverse?
We are a culture hub and world building platform.
Our work is as much about culture COALESCING as it is about culture CREATION and CURATION. We decided we needed a space to collectively understand the past and future of Solarpunk. We also realized that a Solarpunk world is not possible without addressing ecological crises, hence all our initiatives hold Nature as an integral need, delivering an urgent call to action.
World building is only possible when it is a collective endeavor, grow-created by us. So we invite you into the Solarpunkverse, come lay some cornerstones with us!
[i] Louise, Olivia, Land of Masks and Jewels, Missolivialouise Tumblr, 2014 <https://missolivialouise.tumblr.com/post/94374063675/heres-a-thing-ive-had-around-in-my-head-for-a >
[ii] Flynn, Adam, Solarpunk: Notes Towards a Manifesto, Project Hieroglyph, 2014
<https://hieroglyph.asu.edu/2014/09/solarpunk-notes-toward-a-manifesto/ >
[iii] Gillam, William Joseph, A Solarpunk Manifesto: Turning Imaginary into Reality, Imagining Anarchist Futures: Possibilities and Potentials, MDPI, 2023. https://www.mdpi.com/2409-9287/8/4/73
[iv] From Steampunk to Solarpunk, Republic of the Bees, 2008. https://republicofthebees.wordpress.com/2008/05/27/from-steampunk-to-solarpunk/
[v] What is Solarpunk: A Manifesto, Solarpunk Italia, 2024. https://solarpunk.it/what-is-solarpunk-a-manifesto/
[vi] What is Solarpunk: A Manifesto, Solarpunk Italia, 2024. https://solarpunk.it/what-is-solarpunk-a-manifesto/
[vii] Vogt, William, Road to Survival, W. Sloane Associates, 1948
[viii] Scott, Spencer, Solarpunk: Refuturing Our Imagination for an Ecological Transformation, OneEarth, 2023. < https://www.oneearth.org/solarpunk/ >
[ix] King, Larry, Beyond Neoliberalism: The Problem and Possibilities for Rethinking Political Economy, President, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, 2020
[x] Green, John, Looking for Alaska, Dutton Juvenile*,* 2005.
[xi] A Solarpunk Manifesto, The Solarpunk Community, **Regenerative Design. https://www.re-des.org/es/a-solarpunk-manifesto/
[xii] Scott, Spencer, Solarpunk: Refuturing Our Imagination for an Ecological Transformation, OneEarth, 2023
