"Solarpunk imagines an optimistic, utopian vision of the future"

A Commentary on Solarpunk by Victor Perton

Today, I read an excellent article, "The solarpunk art movement: Cyberpunk’s joyful counterpart" by Luke Evans. Luke wrote, "Solarpunk imagines an optimistic, utopian vision of the future."

" In contrast to cyberpunk, its gritty, dystopian, yet more well-known equivalent, which imagines a high-tech, urbanised, and pessimistic future, solarpunk imagines an optimistic, utopian vision of the future."

He concludes, "The solarpunk genre is still growing and still forming as an established movement. Many old works, such as Ursula K. Le Guin’s ‘The Dispossessed’, can be seen as aligning with solarpunk, and new works continue to come out of communities like that of Andrew Sage. Given time, this optimistic vision of a peaceful, sustainable, post-capitalist utopia could grow in strength, and maybe, one day, come to fruition."

As someone who champions optimism, I wholeheartedly commend the vision and promise of solarpunk. It is a movement that dares to imagine the future not as something to fear but as something to build with hope, creativity, and shared purpose. By fusing sustainability, community, and beauty into a coherent and optimistic narrative, solarpunk offers not only an inspiring aesthetic but also a call to action, a reminder that the future is ours to design and that we can choose to make it both vibrant and humane.

More Notes on Cyberpunk

Ano Shumba in "Artists reimagine Namibia’s future through sound and art" wrote about a project in Namibia using sound, art, and storytelling to reimagine the country’s future through a sustainable lens titled Solarpunk: A Story of Sand and Energy, led by the Cluster of EU National Institutes for Culture.  Ano wrote, "The project draws from Solarpunk – a creative movement that emerged in the late 2000s as a response to dystopian science fiction. Unlike traditional science fiction, Solarpunk presents optimistic, community-centred futures powered by renewable energy sources such as solar and wind. The genre combines imaginative design with storytelling, often incorporating soundscapes, architecture and visuals to illustrate future possibilities."

 Emily Wenstrom wrote in AN INTRODUCTION TO THE SOLARPUNK GENRE, "The spirit of solarpunk is one of craftsmanship, egalitarianism, and optimism, where technology can be put to work to solve our greatest problems."

Steve Lord, in Cyberpunk: Then and Now, wrote, "Solarpunk is more than an aesthetic and culture. It has a manifesto, a fediverse instance, low-tech and no-tech online magazines. It is a movement founded in cautious optimism. The Solar part of the term represents a sustainable existence for all. In a world ravaged by avarice-driven climate change, rebellion in favour of sustainability and egalitariansim may be the most punk movement of all.

"Whether Solarpunk the aesthetic and Solarpunk the culture will stay separate from a political alignment is yet to be seen. When it comes to Solarpunk, even I struggle to avoid being cautiously optimistic."

In "Reimagining EV charging: creating inspiring, sustainable spaces for a net zero future",  Lightstate's Alex Hearn writes "as we approach another technological leap, visionary architecture for EV charging stations should capture interest, generate enthusiasm, and inspire optimism."

Intriguingly, he writes, "Solarpunk, with its emphasis on sustainability and optimism offers a compelling vision for this new architectural approach. Applied to EV charging hubs, it can create visually and culturally captivating spaces that recharge both vehicles and their drivers."

In "Solarpunk: Why 2023 Must Be the Year of the Sun", Imogen Malpas FRSA wrote,  "Built on a foundation of climate optimism, inclusivity, and democracy, solarpunk asks us to actively imagine a future where we save the planet in tandem with the human and non-human communities sharing our soils—with historically marginalized people at the center."