Solarpunk Futures

Abstract

Utopian Studies, Futures, and Anticipatory Studies all focus, if in different ways, on the past, present, and (alternative) futures. Utopian narratives anticipate, to cite Abensour, “what is different, the wish for the advent of a radical alterity here and now.”1 A tool that all disciplines use is storytelling—utopias as narratives by definition, Futures and Anticipatory Studies as critical and inquisitive tools. The Solarpunk Futures game taps into these disciplines by creatively exploring still-possible (Solarpunk) or radically new worlds and societies (utopia).The Solarpunk Surf Club is an artists’ collective that has dedicated its work to the creative, collective, and tangible imagining of our futures since 2020. Their first project, Græn R∞m, transformed a public art gallery in Madison, Wisconsin (US), into a space for utopian (re)creation. The “living room,” based on the entertainment industry’s “green room,” allowed visitors to digest art, think, read, and create new forms of (temporal) collectivity. As the Solarpunk Surf Club’s practice is rooted in the intersection between digital media and egalitarian social practices, surfing as a metaphor for the perpetual, flexible yet creative and democratic ways of accessing information and creativity, of communication and networking, seems apt. “Green room” in surfer parlance (so I learned) aptly designates the hollow that forms inside the wave just before it breaks. Artist Gary Hill describes surfing in the green room as a “moment of ecstasy—being inside the question that asks of itself while revealing itself.”2 Mittenthal links this moment to Heidegger’s understanding of clearing,Art, creativity, and (self-)transformation emerge from this open place, a space for contemplation, excavation, and, as I would add, utopian desire. These creative and “clearing,” perhaps grounding, processes are also one of the foundations of the collective’s next project, Solarpunk Futures, a beautiful tabletop card game, a work of art that creates moments of hope, inspiration and contemplation in the participants. Inspired by the principles of Solarpunk and social ecology, it seeks to replace the nihilism of cyberpunk and the trappings of the Anthropocene with “ingenuity, generativity, independence, and community.”4 The game uses storytelling as a way of imagining new and different futures in a collective and empowering way—it is your story you are telling, not the story of others. George Monbiot underscores the need to tell different and new stories in our age of the Anthropocene:Rob Hopkins in From What Is to What If: Unleashing the Power of Imagination to Create the Future We Want (2019) reminds us too that the imagination is and can be an accelerator for change by asking what if—change can happen. His book begins with a story of how things turned out okay. Each chapter poses a “what if” question: What if we took play seriously? What if school nurtured young imaginations? What if our leaders prioritized the cultivation of imagination? Hopkins addresses education, civic planning, politics, healthcare, exploring the role of imagination and the difference it can make to think outside of the box.6The Solarpunk Futures and Hopkins apply what UNESCO calls “Futures Literacy”—a creative and practical use of storytelling not only to make the participants more resilient for future developments but also to empower them by imagining their future roles and actions. Futures Literacy takes its cue from Anticipation and Futures Studies. The Futures Literacy Laboratories use action-learning and collective storytelling to make change possible—if you can imagine a different future (out-of-the-box thinking) where you are a participant, you can actively co-create this future. The principles here are collaborative storytelling and co-creation again, in short, practical utopianism.7The Solarpunk Surf Club see Solarpunk “as visionary utopian politics and aesthetic that critically engages the reality of capitalist catastrophe while maintaining a radical optimism about humanity’s hopes for a communal, ecological future.”8 The game taps into this. Through collective storytelling, and utopian desire, the participants access who they are and who they want to be in the future, and in what kind of society. The different cards provide the basis for this imagining:The second edition of the game has introduced the aspect of remembrance to acknowledge how change was brought about under great sacrifices and with great energy.As it is a tabletop game, Solarpunk Futures is also not reliant on technology. The artists’ edition is lavishly beautiful and is currently distributed to the kickstarter funders of the first edition. A second edition will be available in summer 2022 but readers can also download the cards, and a game book free from the website.10