Is ruin porn solarpunk?
Where do better futures end and post-apocalypses begin?
IMAGE: ‘Twice as Bright’ by Arthur Keller visualised by Mathieu Loiseau
There’s a shade of solarpunk set in futures where our current society has collapsed and a new one is being built in its remnants.
In the story Wings of Glass by Wendy Nikel, published in Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Winters society as we know it is gone.
The protagonists travel through abandoned cities while living in tiny self-sufficient rural communities.
Where is the line between this type of solarpunk and post-apocalyptic cli-fi? Is this even solarpunk at all?
This is one of the questions we ask in our upcoming piece about the many shades of solarpunk.
IMAGE: Claire Alexis, SolarPunk Stories
There’s one main thing that puts something on the solarpunk side of the line for us.
That’s whether the people depicted living in these places seem to have built something new and more hopeful out of the decay of the old.
Like in this piece of art by Aerroscape.
The bridge may be submerged but the addition of the turbines, solar PV, roof gardens and sailing ships help this to feel less like Mad Max and more like making the best of things.
For us, if the vibe is more “look at the ruin we have wrought on the world and now we have to live in this wasteland” it tips it into post apocalyptic cli-fi.
What do you think? Do you have examples of art or stories that are called solarpunk but you think are actually ruin porn? Or vice versa? Let us know in the comments below.
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And…
Introducing Solacene @Solacene Pod
Inside the Imaginarium of a Solarpunk Architect @Messy Nessy Chic
The future of high street fashion? A hub where you mend, make and swap clothes @Positive News
Green Tories call for next PM to take urgent action to insulate homes @Guardian
Sun 4th Sep FREE EARTH CARE #permaculture day event @May Project Gardens (Morden, South London)
Longpath: Becoming the Great Ancestors Our Future Needs @Longpath
Second Life Founder, Philip Rosedale on the misguided Efforts Fuelling Web 3 @Team Human Pod
Until Next Time
That's all for this update. If you like what we’re trying to do here and know someone else who might do too then please like, comment and share.
See you in the sunshine,
Alex Holland
Founder, SolarPunk Stories
I like the way you differentiate the two (and I love the phrase "ruin porn" ... I hadn't heard that before).
I agree with how you're defining what makes something Solarpunk because the genre is really values-driven (hope, equality, fair distribution, resiliency, care for all species, etc, etc).
Similarly, a creation can look Solarpunk on the surface if it's doesn't carry those liberatory values then it's something else ( (i.e. green elitism, eco-fascism) that's wearing a solarpunk mask
Love what you do - thanks for the post <3