LemonMay 16

A rant on why I think we need realistic Solarpunk, plus some other things 1/2 ☀️

Felt compelled to make this. It will finally stop floating around in my head 🎉

Podcast over here if you're interested: https://podcast.tomasino.org/@SolarpunkPrompts

#solarPunk #hopePunk #art #myArt #comics #sustainability

Solarpunk Prompts (@SolarpunkPrompts) • Activity

What is Solarpunk? Why does it matter? In this series we discuss Solarpunk as a movement within art, literature, and activism. We explore its themes and talk about what separates it from its genre peers. Each episode explores a writing prompt set in a Solarpunk aesthetic with examples and inspirations from our world today. Based upon story prompts created by Paweł Ngei⁩. Episode transcripts available here New logo and cover image by Natalia Vish (CC-BY-SA 4.0)

Tomasino Podcasts
Show threadNeil KandalgaonkarMay 16

@the_lemonaut I really appreciate this

My exposure to solarpunk has been a) a yogurt commercial, b) thanks to super-technology, cats are enthusiastic partcipants in the weekly commune meetings*

In theory I liked the genre but I didn't see anything I really identified with. Subbing to the pod for more.

Hard-solarpunk? Though "hard" has the wrong connotations

* Extremely unrealistic, obviously the cats would skip them

Show threadalxd ✏️ solarpunk promptsMay 16
@neilk I'm one of the proponents of such hard solarpunk - and while I don't know if we have a label, together with @the_lemonaut and a dozen other artists we created https://storyseedlibrary.org/ to promote more grounded climate future art! :)
Welcome to Story Seed Library!

A library of Solarpunk art and story seeds helping you imagine a better climate future!

Story Seed Library
Show threadNeil KandalgaonkarMay 18

@alxd @the_lemonaut I tried listening to this but I realized it’s intended for writers

I’m not sure I approve of this tbh. There are two independent premises that are assumed true: that there is an optimistic future, and that it has the solarpunk aesthetic. Then we’re supposed to construct rationalizations for it

I could understand the prompt to be optimistic xor to write about future communitarianism but both simultaneously? idk. Le Guin would never.

Show threadLemonMay 18
@neilk, not sure what the problem is in this situation, or whether you're being serious at all (apologies if you are). Why is a suggestion to write speculative fiction that combines multiple premises bad? Is giving a prompt "write a story set in a world where robots have gained sentience AND where humanity has colonized Mars" automatically unviable? Why? 🤔 These premises don't exist to divine the future. Also...the podcast is called Solarpunk Prompts. What else could the premises be?
Show threadNeil KandalgaonkarMay 18

@the_lemonaut Perhaps I should not have said anything. You have a project and it gives you hope. There is lots of undiscovered country even within the parameters you have set

In my defense. I’m very suspicious of anything that constrains the artist to affirm a vision of the future. Been there done that. My reference to Le Guin was that she could only offer “ambiguous” utopias because she understood people all too well

https://inventwithpython.com/theguyialmostwas/

The Guy I Almost Was | Graphic Novel by Patrick Sean Farley

The Guy I Almost Was by Patrick Farley

Show threadLemonMay 18

@neilk, it's is A version of A future, and also nobody is forcing anyone to fit the stated parameters. If they feel like it too limiting they can just...not follow them 🤷 And they don't have to follow them forever in every piece they make

Creative prompts specifically suggest frames within which people can create, if they find the idea interesting or compelling. There is also the concept of creative limitation.

I am very curious to know what you had expected to see from this podcast instead

Show threadNeil Kandalgaonkar

@the_lemonaut It’s what I expected but it raised some other things in me

I think it’s just not for me. I should have let it alone

May 18 at 3:24pmWeb
Show threadalxd ✏️ solarpunk promptsMay 18

@neilk @the_lemonaut

Out of curiosity - if I told you about a (possibly utopian) country, would you believe that it's achievable within the next few decades?

It's powered by 80-90% renewable energy. 65+% of people work in co-ops, which generate at least 33% of the GDP. The transport is not even public, it's communal - local co-ops own it. Public healthcare. Every child speaks 2-4 languages from the very beginning. Three major religions exist there without big tensions.

Show threadNeil KandalgaonkarMay 18

@alxd @the_lemonaut

*sigh*

You’re pushing on an open door. I am not the person you need to convince that ways of living, other than what white suburbanites in the US know about, are possible and even exist today

I just don’t believe that writing narratives with the overarching purpose of prefiguring some desired political or economic end state makes for good art. That’s just reverse Ayn Rand.

Show threadalxd ✏️ solarpunk promptsMay 18

@neilk @the_lemonaut

and I'm trying to show you something else here. Because I am not trying to write art.

I am trying to write reporting.

What I described in the message above is just modern day Kenya. With its own share of problems, but a lot of _good_ things we don't notice.

I started looking into Solarpunk because I needed to have a new language for describing the reality around me that people wouldn't notice, wouldn't listen to normally!

https://lenses.alxd.org/

Solarpunk: lenses and foundations

Round Mirror by Ethan Sees Last year I published a lengthy videoessay on Solarpunk as a part of collaboration with a philosophical YouTube channel "Myśleć Głębiej" (Think That Through in English). It took me a few months to translate it and update a few sections (especially regarding cyberpunk's romanticism), but I'd like to present you with a written form of my essay - available in audio HERE! The recorded form follows a deeper exploration of philosophy of the movement, thoroughly discussing the notions of cultural hieroglyphs and squeecore I only briefly mention in the text below: Who am I? My name is Pawel Ngei, on the internet also known as A-L-X-D. I’m a software developer and hacker, someone analysing technology outside of a formal framework of a company or university. I’m especially interested in cultural narratives about technology and engineering, their impacts on societies and communities. I first encountered Solarpunk soon after the “Notes towards a Manifesto” came to be at Arizona State University in 2014 while looking for a way to express some …

alxd - solarpunk hacker
Show threadalxd ✏️ solarpunk promptsMay 18

@neilk @the_lemonaut most of the Story Seeds / Writing Prompts are based on real stories, real situations, real communities.

I want people to notice them around.

Does it give it a desired political purpose? Yes, to change people's perspective.

Is it bad art? Maybe. But maybe I don't want to create good art, whatever it's definition.

I just want to create a language to talk about what's worthwhile for me.

Show threadnaugturMay 19

@alxd @neilk @the_lemonaut

I digress, but there's no such thing as objectively good art.

Show threadTinJar (Author: "A New Faith")May 22

@alxd @neilk @the_lemonaut

This is what motivates me to write, too.

Show threadnaugturMay 19

@alxd

Listening to the linked vid.

"But enough about Avatar movies" 🤣