Solarpunk

I have been absolitely obcessed with Solarpunk since I was a child, even thought I didnt know it was called Solarpunk. Movies like My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, and Spirited Away are some of my favorites. Alongside that, Wall-E-s mesage has always stuck with me growing up, and Big Hero 6 was one of my favorite movies due to its enviroment design.
That, plus my country has always had greenery around, and to get by, families are encouraged to have at least a small patch in their house to grow legumes and vegestables. My family grow own bananas, plaintains, mint, onions, potatoes, mangoes, papayas .ect in our backyard, and I grew up loving doing and growing things myself, as well as using scraps to make art.

The way I was introduced to Solarpunk was by the Animation Studio LINE made, called "Dear Alice" and after all this time, I finally had a name for this style, this idea of a future where we can co-exist with Nature. A world where technology is used to help, not destroy. Where capitalism doesn't prohibit people from doing what they love. Where people dont live under the stars unless they choose to.


A World of Solarpunk.





What even IS Solarpunk?


"Solarpunk is a literary, artistic, and social movement, close to the hopepunk movement, that envisions and works toward actualizing a sustainable future interconnected with nature and community. The "solar" represents solar energy as a renewable energy source and an optimistic vision of the future that rejects climate doomerism, while the "punk" refers to do it yourself and the countercultural, post-capitalist, and sometimes decolonial aspects of creating such a future." - Wikipedia


Solarpunk is a vision of a world where we reject capitalist and colonial ideals in favor of comunity and co-habitation, regardless of circumstances. A world where those who need help get the help, a world where the disabled arent treated as less and given the tools to help themselves. A world where rights are promised in reality, not on paper.
It may seem idealistic and childish, but a world similar to this can be created if we try.


Many things that inspire Solarpunk Visuals is Art Nouveau, Sustainability, and ideas that are Oposite to Cyberpunk.

Media

What better way to start than the video that introduced me to Solarpunk?
Dear Alice is a theLINE piece of animation, originally made as an... adverticement of Chobani, a yogurt company. Ignoring the irony of this, the video itself is a GREAT visual to how I personally picture a Solarpunk World.



After this video, I saw Andrewism and DamiLee's videos on the topic, but I also noticed something. Everyone has a different view of what Solarpunk LOOKS like. Some have towering, futuristic cities, with wind turbines in the distance. Others think that it looks like technology blending with Nature, with towering trees and isolated villages.
And you know what? I think that's fine! Solarpunk should look different, especially depending on where in the world it location is. Afro-Solarpunk is a great example of this.
Everything SHOULD be different. Because humans ARE different. And societies ARE different.


Another thing I found recently is the "Solarpunk Week Pinterest board". I found it just after I made my OWN Pinterest board.



Another place to look at Solarpunk things is at Story Seed Library , and Solapunk.net , which are places where artists can create and share news, art and writing about Solarpunk to a community. Story Seed Library specifically was stared to combat the negativity that generative AI has had over artists now-a-days.

My own Story

I've been writing my own Solarpunk story for a while now. I dont have a name for it yet, so I've been refering to it as "Punk Worlds". Essencially, after human-made exploitations made the planet too dangerous to live in, about 80% of humanity ventured towards the stars in hopes to reach a habitable planet 40 light years away from earth. After years and years, the world they reached turned into a Dystopian nightmare, with the planet being torn into two. After an accident, our main character AKoni ends up crashlanded on earth. But instead of a desolate and inhospitable land, she finds a thriving society, built from the ashes of the previous one. Milania is the one who found her, so she helped her adapt to this new world.