I’ve been an active voice in the Solarpunk movement since its earliest days, helping shape its ideas, community, and visibility. My involvement began on the mailing list that organised weirdshitcon 2012, a key moment in Solarpunk’s early development.
Shortly after, Adam Flynn published ‘On the Need for New Futures‘ on solarpunks.net. an essay that defined many of the foundational questions the movement still explores today.
I joined solarpunks.net as a co-admin in 2014 and have since played a central role in growing and stewarding the community.
As a writer, speaker, and strategist, I’ve been at the forefront of Solarpunk’s evolution, contributing essays, interviews, and talks that have influenced its direction. My work has been cited in discussions about Solarpunk’s potential as a cultural and political force.
This page collects my writing and public engagements on Solarpunk over the years—feel free to explore.
If you’d like to connect regarding my work in Solarpunk, you can do so here.
Solarpunk Essays
Solarpunk
A Container for More Fertile Futures
Solarpunk Magazine 2022:
There is no one fixed future, given the choice between ‘the only solution’ and ‘possible options,’ solarpunk will always choose the latter.
DIY Punk, Cultural Fracking, The Chrome Of Yestermorrow, Cyberpunk, Solarpunk, Visions of the Future and the Anthropogreen at Unsound 2019
Solarpunk
A Grand Dress Rehearsal
A brief history of Solarpunk, Cyberpunk and Visions of the Future, Narrative Stategies and Strategic Narratives
Transcribed by Open Transcripts
Solarpunk A Reference Guide
Link repository compiled by me collating important contributions to Solarpunk movement up to 2018.
Solarpunks.net
Solarpunks.net is a blog dedicated to the emerging subgenre of science fiction premised on the separation of economies from fossil fuels.
Solarpunk explores what free energy sources and decentralised energy infrastructure could mean for future society. A movement that seeks to answer and embody the question “what does a sustainable civilisation look like, and how can we get there?”
I have described Solarpunk as a memetic engine – a tool to power the ‘re-futuring’ of our collective imagination.
My Solarpunk short story ‘In The Storm, A Fire’ was long listed for the BSFA Award for Short Fiction.
Since 2012 the tag line of Solarpunks.net has been “At once a vision of the future, a thoughtful provocation, and an achievable lifestyle .. in progress”
Fiction
(In Print)
📚 In The Storm, A Fire
- Long listed for the BSFA 2020 Short Fiction Award
- Chanticleer International Book Awards 2020 Short Story Award semifinalist
And Lately, The Sun | Calyx Press (UK, US)
Lo Stato Solare | Future Fiction (IT)
Non-Fiction
(In Print)
📚 Solarpunk: A Container for More Fertile Futures – Solarpunk Magazine #1 | Android Press (EN)
📚 The Vibe Dislocates the Present to Re-Future the Future – Regeneracija [ir jos įtampos] | Architektūros Fondas (LT) [Now available as free pdf!]
📚 Introduction – Solarpunk: Dalla Disperazione Alla Strategia | Future Fiction (IT)
Press
- Solarpunk started out as a speculative fiction genre. Now it informs sustainable architecture and design | Interview ABC News
- Solarpunk Is Not About Pretty Aesthetics. It’s About the End of Capitalism
Interview | Vice/Motherboard - Why “Solarpunk” Gives Me Hope for a More Sustainable Future
Interview – Yes Magazine - Solarpunk Is a Tumblr Vibe. It’s Also a Practical Movement
Interview/Article – Builtin
- This is All Happening Right Now: Solarpunk, cultural fracking and the real Jurassic Park with Jay Springett
Podcast/Interview – Interdependence.fm - Solarpunk – The Sunny Therapy Against The Endtimes – [German’]
Interview – arte.tv - ‘Solar Punk, a framework for hopeful futures’
Interview – Clot Mag - Anthem of the Sun Interviewed
Interviewed – Real Life Mag - Is Ornamenting Solar Panels a Crime?
Interviewed – E-flux
Recent Talks
Podcasts + Interviews
The Stoa | 2021
Occulture Pod | 2019
Unsee the Future | Podcast
Talks With Jesse Nickell the Fourth
_(Un)Sustainable Perspectives | Patchlab 2022
Solarpunk Means Dreaming Green | 2024
Interdependence FM | 2020
Branch Magazine Symposium | Ars Electronica 21
The Future Is A Vibe | Intonal 21
Musicville – New European Opera 2023
EcoGradia Podcast | 2024
SolarPosts
It’s Beginning to Feel a Bit Like The Future | 2517
We must attempt to reclaim some proximity to the future. We have to stop strip-mining yesterday and act as though the future is already here.
In the Storm, a Fire | A Solarpunk Short Story
In the Storm, a Fire: A Solarpunk short story by Jay Springett and Andrew Dana Hudson.
How Solarpunk Envisions A World We Will Want To Live In | Ecogradia
I was recently invited to join Nirmal Kishnani on season 5 of EcoGradia, the architecture and sustainability podcast, to talk about Solarpunk.
Solarpunk Means Dreaming Green | Human Entities 2024
Recording of my talk ‘Solarpunk Means Dreaming Green’ at Human Entities 2024 in partnership with the Lisbon Architecture Triennale
Short Term Thinking | 2409
I propose that everything that occurs between the decision to plant a tree and the full expression of its canopy is short term thinking.
Solarpunk: A Container for More Fertile Futures
My original essay from Solarpunk Magazine’s first issue. It examines the rise of Solarpunk as a creative force for sustainable futures.
Solarpunk, Cybertruck | 2335
The Cybertruck of 2035 will be a mundane part of everyday life. Most of the stuff around us today – is going to still be around in a Solarpunk future. To foreshorten the Gibson quote: “The future is already here”.
Rapid Realms: A Visual Novel with AI | Part 2
This is part two of my speed run to make a a Solarpunk visual novel Using Stable Diffusion, Godot and GPT4 in less than 30 hours
Rapid Realms: A Visual Novel with AI | Part 1
Using Stable Diffusion, Godot and GPT4, I’m going to try and make a Solarpunk visual novel in less than 30 hours
Solarpunk. A remix. | Fo.AM
Wonderful folks over at the ‘transdisciplinary network’ that is Fo.AM just published Solarpunk. A remix as part of their Anarchive project
(Un)Sustainable Perspectives | Patchlab 2022
This Saturday (8th Oct) at 3pm UK time I will be on the panel (Un)Sustainable Perspectives as part of Patchlab Festival’s online programming.
Talks With Jesse Nickell | Just Another Podcast
I recently had a pleasure of speaking about Solarpunk with Artist / Youtuber / Musician and all round creative guy Jesse Nickell the Fourth.
Wolves Lane
The cactus house is laid out like a body, a womb, a heart and stepping stones representing the cardinal directions and the elements.
Unsee The Future | Podcast
I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Timo Peach from Unsee The Future. We talked Solarpunk, narrative strategy, and more
Solarpunk Magazine | Issue #1
I have an essay titled ‘Solarpunk: A Container for More Fertile Futures’ in the inaugural issue of Solarpunk Magazine – out today.
WHAT PUNK ARE YOU?
I was on a panel at Futurecon 2021 on Saturday: ‘WHAT PUNK ARE YOU? Past, Present and Future Trends in Anti-capitalists Science Fiction’
Solarpunk: A Narrative Strategy, a Memetic Engine | The Stoa
I went to The Stoa last night to talk about Solarpunk, Cultural Fracking, Narrative Strategy & Memetic Engines.
On Memetic Engines
I was asked to post the current working definition of a ‘Memetic Engine’ from my Intonal 2021 Talk ‘The Future Is A Vibe’.
THE FUTURE IS A VIBE | INTONAL FESTIVAL 2021
My talk ‘The Future Is A Vibe’ for Intonal Festival is about scissor labels, memetic engines, ‘future texture’, vibes, Solarpunk and more.
LuxCon 2020 – Eurocon Presents: Solarpunk | 18.Apr.21
I will be on a Solarpunk panel alongside writers Francesco Verso (IT) and Ana Rüsche (BR) at LuxCon 2020 this Sunday, April 18th.
Solarpunk, Stacktivism and Cold Texas | 2107
The Texas disaster has all the elements of a Solarpunk story.
In the Storm, A Fire Longlisted for the BSFA Award for Short Fiction
My Solarpunk short ‘In the Storm, A Fire‘ with Andrew Dana Hudson, has been long listed for the 2020 BSFA Award for Short Fiction.
And Lately, The Sun Anthology: OUT NOW!
Excited to share that my Solarpunk clifi story with Andrew Dana Hudson ‘In the Storm, A Fire’ is out now in the anthology And Lately, The Sun
This is All Happening Right Now | Interdependence.fm
I was a guest on Holly Hendon and Mat Dryhurst’s excellent podcast Interdependence.fm this week.
‘Solar Punk, a framework for hopeful futures’
When I was at Unsound Festival last week I bumped in to Journalist Jacobo García from Spain based Clot Mag. He told me over the deafening noise of Dreamcrusher that an article based on an interview I did with him at Sonar+D Festival was now online.
The Anthropogreen | 1912
The Anthropogreen – A new geological epoch defined by the outcome of a different sort of human intervention upon the earth.
One Foot Forward | 1826
This Episode contains a brief overview of Unsound Festival and The Beyond Cyberpunk panel I was on with the Cyberpunk 2077 creators.
Handprints and Maps | 1822
I criticise blockchain thinking, then talk briefly about John Barrell’s notion of Circular Geography.
“Dirt Behind Our Ears” : On Solarpunk and the Need for New Futures
Solarpunk is a movement in speculative fiction, art, fashion and activism that seeks to answer and embody the question “what does a sustainable civilization look like, and how can we get there?”.
#Asperity
Asperity policies are often used by governments to try to reduce the emissions of a defined population, system or activity.
