01 // A hopeful future
I found Solarpunk on the mailing list organising weirdshitcon 2012, when a small group of writers and cultural thinkers were trying to make room for futures other than collapse.
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 helped run it ever since.
Since then I’ve been at the forefront of Solarpunk’s development: writing essays and fiction, giving talks, conducting interviews, and helped steward the early online community that formed around it. My early work has helped shape the movement as it moved into architecture, design, activism, and the wider culture.
This page is the record: essays, interviews, talks, and fiction.
If you’d like to connect regarding my work in Solarpunk, you can do so here.
02 // Essays & Presentations
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.
Solarpunk
Life in the Future Beyond the Rusted Chrome of Yestermorrow
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.
03 // Community & books
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)
04 // Selected press
- Tired of dystopian sci-fi? You might like Solarpunk Interview – Mother Jones
- 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
05 // Watch & listen
Solarpunk Means Dreaming Green
Solarpunk: A Grand Dress Rehearsal
Talks With Jesse Nickell the Fourth
_(Un)Sustainable Perspectives | Patchlab 2022
The Future Is A Vibe | Intonal 21
Musicville – New European Opera 2023
06 // From the archive
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Why We Should Start Naming Heatwaves
Listening to the rain arrive out the open window, I decided we should name heatwaves the same way as we do storms.
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The Future Arrived in June
I often think that it’s best to explain that a climate model simulates a ‘possible world’ where a set of assumptions are allowed to play out.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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…
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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
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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
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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
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(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.
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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.
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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.
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Stale Living
I can feel the ‘Spring Clean’ on its way. You can always feel it coming.
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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
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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.
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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’
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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.
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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’.
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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.
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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.
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Solarpunk, Stacktivism and Cold Texas | 2107
The Texas disaster has all the elements of a Solarpunk story.
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Solarpunk Is a Tumblr Vibe | Press
I recently spoke with builtin.com about Solarpunk and technology
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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.
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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
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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.
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Proposed Supertask
We certainly do need better futures right now. Thats the supertask.
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‘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…
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The Anthropogreen | 1912
The Anthropogreen – A new geological epoch defined by the outcome of a different sort of human intervention upon the earth.
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Happy New Year!!
Its March but it feels like the new year.
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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.
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Handprints and Maps | 1822
I criticise blockchain thinking, then talk briefly about John Barrell’s notion of Circular Geography.
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“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…
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#Asperity
Asperity policies are often used by governments to try to reduce the emissions of a defined population, system or activity.
