Solarpunk has become a movement with a base in visual arts and speculative fiction. Beyond the mere aesthetic and the fashion, it is helping us collectively imagine what kind of a world we want to live in. Some may find it hard to call it a movement. But don’t all movements start with a vague, but bright instance of collective imagination?

You may already know about Cyberpunk and Steampunk. Is Solarpunk similarly, yet another genre of science fiction with a Gen Z-driven sustainability flair? Perhaps.

Still, I’d rather think of Solarpunk as something more than that. Like many others in the movement, I’d rather have Solarpunk stand for a more optimistic, sustainable and regenerative vision for our future on this planet, as a set of key ideas as we navigate the end of the global capitalist system.

Solarpunk is not luxurious condos for select few

Starting off, it may be useful to weed out the things that Solarpunk is not.

Solarpunk is not about how a single rich few go about their sustainable, care-free days making organic farming, hand-picking produce from home-grown heirloom seeds while they live in a “Solarpunk-themed” condo designed by a top architect for millions of times of the global minimum wage. It is not another marketing gimmick for rich municipalities to boast their latest, money-laundering development projects.

Solarpunk is not a luxurious, fantasy world where nature abides to insensibilities.

Rooted in the Internet since the late 2000s, the Solarpunk movement heavily relies on bright, green, industrial-scale re-imaginations of the entire human existence, with all its institutions and organizations. The movement does not imagine anything for a select few.

Solarpunk is not artfully-designed green consumerism

Have you been greenwashed before? Probably, yes. Greenwashing is a term first coined in the 1980s by the environmentalist Jay Westerveld. It refers to the little marketing game some companies play, as they take miniature steps towards what seems like environmental responsibility. Needless to mention, their profit-obsession never changes and they almost never care about the environment.

I know it’s not easy to change all your consumerist habits at once. It’s a daunting task. If only there was a miracle product that you could buy, a supernatural system you could embed in your home or a new biochip you could implant to your forearm to make up for your environmental sins, right? Sorry, it doesn’t work that way. It takes some time and some adaptations. Some companies may want to make you believe that, because that means you can confess, repent and stay environmentally conscious until you buy the next big guilty pleasure.

Solarpunk is not seeing the world through rose-coloured glasses

I am a millennial and I am sick of it. I go about my days lamenting about the inequalities, the militarization and the exploitation. I think everything was better when I was a child, because I didn’t know as much. Sometimes I feel ashamed of my privileges. Other days, I feel outraged because I don’t think I have enough. Then I remember, I didn’t choose the grander scheme of things. Like I’ve heard many times, I can’t change those things on my own. I feel myself slide into a mildly desperate state of acceptance.

What makes me feel at peace with all things Solarpunk is the fact that many in the movement have felt similarly, at some point in their lives. Whatever differences we had in our living conditions did not make us lose our grip of the harsh realities of the world. We are aware that we’re late in dealing with climate change. Our systems are slow. Institutions are mostly unnecessary. While imagination is the strongest driver in Solarpunk, it does not neglect anything and tries to make peace with whatever harsh realities we're left with.

The Solarpunk aesthetic’s building blocks

The Solarpunk aesthetic is ever-changing. There is no color palette, no restrictions on what to depict and what to leave out or no hidden agenda that drives creations. The movement is mainly nurtured through visual and literary creations. It’s a collectively imagined new reality that lives on digital paper and centers around a hopeful, ecologically responsible and self-governing future.

Examples from famous artists

Luc Shuiten is a Belgian artist and architect born in 1944. He’s counted as one of the main inspiration sources for everything Solarpunk. His depictions of ecological, regenerative cityscapes largely influenced many in the space. His “vegetal cities”, as he names them, are shaped by biomimicry, influenced by shapes and patterns we see in nature.

Art Nouveau is another big source of inspiration. The visual arts style became popular across Europe in the late 1800s, with many artists of various disciplines taking an elegant interest in abstracting natural patterns in their designs. Beautiful asymmetries in nature became cozy, eye-pleasing details in architecture. Use of color palettes from fall pastures embellished the fine details.

Hayao Miyazaki’s big constellations that coexist with nature in their quirky, makeshift ways have awed many in the movement too. Think Howl’s Moving Castle. Or how in Princess Mononoke, Mother Nature’s mythical creatures protect us against the impending industrial forces.

A beautiful solution imagined together

For some, Solarpunk’s emergence was in science fiction literature. Others see its first optimistic marks in visual arts. Wherever you see Solarpunk though, it’s about finding solutions and not falling in despair. It’s not only about the beautiful vision, but also about the underlying issues, like lack of social justice, inefficiencies or selfish governance. The “punk” is there for a reason - the Solarpunk movement rebels against the mainstream ways of capitalist production and consumption.

Last but not least, the biggest strength of Solarpunk lies in having us start imagining what a better future could look like. I can’t imagine any better way than with visuals and stories.

For more on Solarpunk check out these resources:

• Read the Solarpunk manifesto
• Visit r/Solarpunk
• Visit solarpunks.net
• Check out some Solarpunk movies

The lead image for this article was generated by HackerNoon's AI Image Generator via the prompt "solarpunk future".