WHAT SOLARPUNK MOVIES ARE THERE? #5 - After Yang

A quietly solarpunk film

By Alastair Ball

A soothing solarpunk change to more bombastic sci-fi epics, After Yang is a meditative exploration of identity, life, and family in a near-future Earth.

The film centres on a family in the future: Jake (Colin Farrell), Kyra (Jodie Turner-Smith), their adopted daughter Mika (Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja), and Mika's robotic companion Yang (Justin H. Min). Yang's role is to be a companion for Mika to help her connect her with her Chinese heritage.

When Yang malfunctions and dies Jake delves into Yang's memories, uncovering past lives. This exploration leads to questions about what being alive, in love and aware means for humans and sentient machines in a way that is similar to one of the other solarpunk films we’ve reviewed, Her.

Like Her it's a far cry from the depiction of computer sentience as seen in the Terminator or Matrix. Depicting technology being used in a context designed to enhance rather than detract from human wellbeing is one way this film is our shade of solarpunk.

Another is how the characters we see in the film enjoy a high quality of life. There are no depictions of poverty or gross inequality you often get in more dystopian movies. Artisanal professions still exist too. Jake runs a stylish tea shop where he crafts bespoke looseleaf blends. Other families depicted in the film are diverse, non-traditional, and accepting.  

One of the ways the film is most solarpunk is its aesthetic with sustainability woven into the world-building. The characters inhabit a beautiful world, blending nature with stylish architecture and interiors. Self-driving vehicles or public transport pods have plants in them.

The bungalow where our main characters live is built around a tree, reflecting their connection to nature. Clothing choices lean towards natural fibres weaved into Asian-style robes and kimonos. The city skyline combines futuristic buildings with abundant greenery.

In a way that has a lot in common with Her, the heart of this film is less about solarpunk and more about identity, relationships and even what to live for. The deliciously sustainable future we see is a setting for this profound and moving tale of love, loss and life. If you’re open to quieter, more contemplative sci-fi, After Yang is a film I strongly recommended.

By Alastair Ball

WHAT SOLARPUNK MOVIES ARE THERE? #4 - 2040

regenerative ideas for a solarpunk future in this blended fiction documentary film

By Alex Holland

Damon Gameau's documentary, 2040, isn't your typical climate change film. Instead of dwelling on dystopian futures, it offers a refreshing perspective, a roadmap to a brighter world built on existing solutions.

The film follows Gameau on a journey to discover innovations that could revolutionize our relationship with the environment. We meet experts in renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, and community-driven economics. These glimpses into real-world projects showcase the potential for a future that's not only sustainable but thriving.

A World Transformed: A Glimpse into a daughter's Future

One of the film's most charming and effective storytelling devices is Gameau's use of creative visualizations. Imagine a world in 2040, not as a dystopian wasteland, but as thriving home for his little daughter, Velvet now a young woman in 2040. Through clever animation and split-screen comparisons, the film contrasts the world of today with a potential future shaped by embracing sustainable solutions.

For instance, we see the Velvet of 2040 donating her home’s production of energy to her neighbours through their local smart grid when she goes away on holiday. This future vision draws on the real-world example from today of people in rural Bangladesh selling and sharing decentralised solar power through their own community energy networks.

These playful visualizations don't just showcase technology, they paint a picture of a more vibrant future for generations to come.

A multitude of inspirations

The film looks at how other things like regenerative agriculture and seaweed farming can be deployed to make Velvet’s future greener and fairer. The weakest part of the film for us is when it champions self-driving cars for cities. We are deeply skeptical about the net benefits of so-called autonomous vehicles and favour cycling and other non-car forms of transport instead, especially for urban environments.

However 2040’s vision of cities with far fewer cars has a really solarpunk element to it. The centre of town is filled with the sound of birdsong and bees instead of engines and horns.

More Than Just Tech

2040 isn't just about technology. It also highlights the importance of social and economic change including Kate Raworth’s concept of Donut Economics, the empowerment of women and a shift towards education that fosters environmental responsibility. The film also features heartwarming segments with children sharing their hopes for the future, a powerful reminder of what's at stake.

A Call to Action

Ultimately, 2040 is a call to action. It doesn't preach or shame, instead, it inspires viewers to imagine a better future and take steps to make it a reality. The film's website even offers a multitude of resources and educational materials to help viewers to take action.

A Breath of Fresh Air

2040 is a thought-provoking and inspiring documentary which in its visualsiation of a sustainable and socially just future is very solarpunk to us. It offers a hopeful vision for the future and a clear message: a better tomorrow is possible, and we have the tools to create it. By using his daughter, Velvet, as a narrative device, Gameau personalizes the stakes and makes the fight for a sustainable future all the more compelling.

WHAT SOLARPUNK MOVIES ARE THERE? #3 - TOMORROWLAND

beyond the shiny - what makes this film solarpunk goes much deeper

Looking to the future or the past? [IMAGE: Disney]

By Alex Holland

“A solarpunk film? Really?” Was my reaction when a friend said Tomorrowland might be an example of the genre.

My scepticism came because of what I’d seen in the trailer and clips. Images of a fantastical future city filled with skyscrapers, rocket ships and flying cars. To me this looked like 20th century modernist visions of utopia rather than the more down to earth rooted shade of solarpunk I favour.

For our Solarpunk on Screen series I reluctantly came to watch it. I discovered not only is Tomorrowland solarpunk, it’s probably the most solarpunk fiction film I’ve seen in one very important way.

To explain why the rest of this piece includes spoilers. You may want to pause reading this and go watch Tomorrowland before carrying on. OK, now that’s out of the way, let’s get into why this is a solarpunk movie.

The setup of Tomorrowland has our teenage heroine Casey Newton, played by Britt Robertson, feeling like she’s the only person who still believes better futures can happen. Her classmates, teacher and even her father all seem addicted to believing things will only get worse.

Reach for the sky [IMAGE: Disney]

Then she discovers a badge which transports her to a vision of a bright future metropolis, Tomorrowland. It’s full of diverse happy people doing things like jetpack races, riding zero gravity monorails and flying frequent space missions to other worlds. She is overwhelmed with a desire to go there.

Shadowy forces want the badge for themselves and try to kill Casey for it. She goes on the run finding Frank Walker, played by George Clooney, who takes her to the alternate dimension where Tomorrowland exists. Though she discovers the reality does not quite match the vision she has seen.

Dynamic duo [IMAGE: Disney]

In essence this is a PG 13 adventure story with enjoyable action, acting and great SFX. Where it gets solarpunk is less the depictions of the glitzy Metropolis Solar future it depicts and more the message of the film.

In the third act of the film, we find out Tomorrowland sent visions of itself to special people on Earth to encourage them to inspire humanity to make a better world. However, the man who runs Tomorrowland, David Nix, played by Hugh Laurie, felt he needed to warn the people of our dimension about the threats facing us. 

Do I look evil in this outfit? [IMAGE: Disney]

He used a tower called The Monitor to transmit images to all of us about the massive potential dangers facing humanity, including climate breakdown. His aim was “to scare them straight” so people would then take action to avoid the end of civilised life. Instead, he saw the majority of Earth ignore these warnings and came to feel it was hopeless. He says,

“In every moment there is the possibility of a better future but you people won't believe it and because you won't believe it you won't do what is necessary to make it a reality. So, you dwell on this terrible future and resign yourselves to it, for one reason. Because that future doesn't ask anything of you today.”

The Monitor [IMAGE: Disney]

After a final battle, involving kick-arse robots of different shapes and sizes, our heroes defeat Nix’s forces and manage to destroy The Monitor. They take control of Tomorrowland and decide to start sending messengers back to our world to recruit people to make a better one possible. Frank says to them,

"It isn't hard to knock down a big evil building that's telling everybody the world's going to end. What is hard is figuring out what to build in its place. If we're going to do that, we're going to need all of you"

The film ends showing how the ‘dreamers’ of our world these messengers approach come from a very wide variety of backgrounds. They are musicians, engineers, community gardeners, school teachers, street artists and conservationists to name a few.

A rainbow of dreamers [IMAGE: Disney]

For me this gets to the heart of why solarpunk is important. As we write about in the first part of our manifesto ‘Imagine Desire’, the evidence shows selling climate hell for the past 40 years has encouraged more passivity and denial rather than the collective action to change things.

What we need is more visions of deliciously sustainable futures to motivate us to make them so. The greater the diversity of the community of people who take part in this the better. 

This film promotes this message with the budget and storytelling skill of a Disney movie. It has communicated why we need solarpunk to a large audience, something I think we need a lot more of. 

So even though shiny skyscrapers and rocket packs are not my favourite shade of our genre, if I were now asked, “Is Tomorrowland a solarpunk film?”, I would say, “Yes, it really is.”

By Alex Holland, Founder SolarPunk Stories

What solarpunk movies are there? #2 - Remote

By Alastair JR Ball

A future where people live sustainable lives, cook for their neighbours, look after communal gardens and watch dog grooming videos together sounds pretty solarpunk. This is the world of international film Remote, the second of our dives into solarpunk films.

Eating a sustainably produced delicious dinner [IMAGE:Remote, film still]

Remote has all the hallmarks of a low budget, independent film. It mainly takes place in one set and focuses on one actor, indeed all scenes take place inside the characters’ homes. The plot also focuses more on character relations and less on action.

Remote is an international film, where characters speak many languages, set in Kuala Lumpur. The plot follows a woman called Unoaku (Okwui Okpokwasili) as she lives her daily routine in a solarpunk near future. Unoaku discovers hidden clues in a Korean woman’s online dog grooming videos, which lead her to meet other women in a virtual social environment and together they try to solve the mystery of these clues.

Watching a dog grooming livestream in the solarpunk future [IMAGE: Remote, film still]

There is a strong case for Remote being a solarpunk film. It’s set in a world that has the solarpunk aesthetic. Unoaku’s flat is full of plants and one room is carpeted with grass. From what we learn about the wider society of Remote, this is a more sustainable future; for example, the packaging for an instant noodle dinner forms part of the recipe (thus reducing waste) and at one point Unoaku eats snacks from an edible packet.

Unoaku has a communal, reciprocal relationship with her neighbours, whom she cooks for. A communal garden moves through her flat on a conveyor belt, which means she tends for and gets produce from different plants each day; as well as having different plants in her flat to look at.

Exercising over a grass floor [IMAGE: Remote, film still]

The solarpunk world shown in Remote looks beautiful. The art direction nails a solarpunk aesthetic, with a colourful vibrant primary coloured palette. The food shown in the film also looks delicious. It was enjoyable to watch a science fiction film set in a world filled with life and colour, in contrast to many recent grey dystopian films.

In our article What Is Solarpunk? One Thing or Many? we said that a solarpunk story needs to be set in a more sustainable and socially just world. We also identified many different shades of solarpunk within this definition. So, what shade is Remote?

Remote has elements of the Rooted Solar shade, in that this world of the film could happen as there is no advanced technology that doesn’t exist today. Even the scenes that take place in the virtual world, more closely resemble chat apps from the 2000s than the meta-verses of today, and they are a long way from fully immersive cyberpunk virtual worlds.

Remote film poster

This film is also on the Happier end of the solarpunk spectrum, as there is no conflict between characters or conflict against wider social, political or environmental forces. The plot focuses on a group of women coming together to solve a mystery. The stakes are low and there is never a sense that they are in danger.

If there is a case against this film being solarpunk, it’s that we are not shown how socially just the world is. There is little to see of the world outside the characters' flats. Although the film is stronger for not having heavy handed exposition about the wider world. The film does show women from all over the world working together without cultural or racial animosity.

Watching dog grooming together in a solarpunk future [IMAGE: Remote, film still]

The other point against this film being solarpunk, is the film’s use of magical realism in its ending. I will avoid spoilers, but I will say that a form of magic is introduced that is not explained. Some viewers might be put off by magic being introduced into a film that is attempting to be a realistic portrait of a sustainable future, however there is no indication that magic has been used to improve the climate.

Remote is slow paced, gentle and, although the main plot is a mystery, it doesn’t have a conclusive explanation at its climax. This is sometimes referred to as the “art house non-ending”.

More conflict and less magic would have made a more engaging film. My personal taste is towards the more Thrilling Solar shade, which tends to be more exciting, such as our own SolarPunk Detective episode 1. This conflict doesn’t need to be violent, but does create a more accessible engaging story. The lack of explanation, the slow pace and the lack of drama might put some viewers off this film.

That said, I did like this film. It has a lighthearted whimsy that made me smile throughout, which reminded me of Amélie. I do enjoy slow, art films without explanation or resolution when I’m in the right mood. The solarpunk aspects of this film are what I enjoyed the most and it was an interesting depiction of a Rooted, Happier Solar world. Although, I was left feeling that Thrilling Solar, being a more accessible shade, might be better for spreading the message of solarpunk.

Alastair JR Ball is the Chief Editor of SolarPunk Stories and the co-host of the Moderate Fantasy Violence podcast and editor of the Red Train Blog.

What solarpunk movies are there? #1 - Her

in the first of our solaRpunk on screen series we look at The subtly intelligent beauty of Her

“Man falls in love with his AI assistant” sounds more like a headline from a tabloid than the plot of a film from a sunnier future. Nonetheless it is the essence of the first film in our series of movies that we feel our solarpunk, the 2013 Spike Jonzes film Her.

Set in a near future where self-aware artificial intelligence assistants have become commercially available for the first time, the story follows Theodore, played by Joaquin Phoenix. A listless writer full of ennui, he ends up falling in love with his AI assistant Samantha, voiced by Scarlett Johansson. Together they discover a whole new lease on life.

The universe it’s set in is subtly solarpunk for us. Theodore lives in a future Los Angeles where cars barely feature except for the odd taxi. The characters get around by walking or using public transport. This includes some really nice-looking trains for getaways to the local beach and further flung snowy wilderness.

All the characters we come across do creative work and there are no depictions of poverty or serious inequality. The office Theodore works in is colourful, airy and collegiate. There’s a passing reference early on to a peaceful sounding Indian-China union implying a world that is coming more harmoniously together.

 The film is definitely on the Happier end of our solarpunk story spectrum being a really poignant and thoughtful love story rather than an action-adventure film. It’s brilliantly scripted, acted and shot.

What makes this film so compelling is that human desires, fears and hopes around loving all still exist, not just for Theodore, but for Samantha the AI too.

 If Her showed a greener city more explicitly powered by renewables it would make it much more solarpunk. Nonetheless we think a more egalitarian, almost car-free future Los Angeles where creative work is the norm feels very solarpunk to us.

While our feelings about the current state of AI are mixed to say the least, we know for sure that we love this beautiful and subtle solarpunk film.

Is this the first really solarpunk novel?

By Alastair JR Ball

“Have you read this new solarpunk book?”, I sat up in my chair.

I’d been on what has seemed like a sometimes fruitless quest to find genuinely solarpunk novels.

While there are an increasing amount of art and short fiction that could fairly be described as solarpunk, there have been far fewer book-length stories.

Hearing Gamechanger by L.X. Beckett might be a solarpunk novel I set about reading it.

Author L X Beckett [IMAGE: Uncanny Magazine]

THE PLOT

The novel follows Rubi Whiting as she investigates the case of Luciano Pox, who has fallen foul of the social code of Gamechanger.

Rubi seeks to solve this mystery while planning a grand finale to her former profession as a competitive virtual RPG player and looking after her ageing father.

Virtual words [IMAGE: Ready Player One]

I loved reading this book but is it really solarpunk? Or just another text that has been mislabelled as it? Read on to find out.

ARGUMENTS IN FAVOUR

Gamechanger is set in a more socially just world than our own and its citizens are better custodians of the natural environment. Elements of this are weaved into the story, such as Rubi stopping to weed a communal flowerbed in-between meetings.

Growing green [IMAGE: May Project Gardens]

Like a lot of solarpunk fiction, Gamechanger is not set in a perfect world and there are still social problems.

Some of these are old ones and others are new, created by the political settlement that is rebuilding the environment. For example limits on the number of children people can have causes violent protests from #FreeBreeders.

Nonetheless, Gamechanger presents a more ecologically positive vision of tomorrow. It shows a world where people are working to successfully clean the air, rejuvenate the sea and repair the damage humanity has done to the environment.

ARGUMENTS AGAINST

The world of Gamechanger is like the ambiguous utopia of Ada Palmer’s Terra Ignota novels. Aspects of it lead us to ask how much more desirable this fictional world really is? Citizens are monitored and assigned points based on whether their actions are considered pro or anti-social.

Ada Palmer Terra Ignota novels Too Like The Lightning, Seven Surrenders and The Will To Battle

Working with people who are struggling to adjust to this new green society gets Rubi points for being pro-social. Speaking out against efforts to rebuild the environment leads to Pox struggling to access services because of his low social score.

Is being constantly monitored good when encouraging people to do things we might think are beneficial to society?

The novel is set several generations in the future where computers, VR, augmented reality and AI are much more advanced than today. As we point out in our manifesto and previous Substack posts, solarpunk can be compatible with advanced technologies like these.

Escaping to virtual worlds [IMAGE Cyberpunk: Edgerunners]

Nonetheless, these types of tech are more commonly thought of as classic cyberpunk tropes. However, this book definitely doesn’t have the high-tech, low-life dynamic of classic cyberpunk novels. It also doesn’t have that genre’s ultra-grim vision of the future.

Is Gamechanger solarpunk?

The SolarPunk Stories sun [IMAGE: Claire Alexis for SolarPunk Stories]

After considering our own shades of solarpunk model, I would argue that though Gamechanger is an edge case, it isn’t solarpunk. This is mainly because of the constant social monitoring and reward/punishment system.

No big brothers in our solarpunk futures [IMAGE: DarkUnknownWarrior Posted in Big Brother (Nineteen Eighty-Four)Makima]

Gamechanger is nowhere near as nightmarish as 1984. Nonetheless, it’s too reminiscent of China’s social credit system for us and all the illiberal overtones that come with that.

For us, such authoritarianism is incompatible with being solarpunk. It might be different if the book made clear that the system had very high levels of democratic participation in deciding how it operates but that’s left disturbingly vague.

A state of surveillance [IMAGE: "Surveillance" by jonathan mcintosh is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.]

Of lesser importance, there are also questions as to how much energy such a universal surveillance system would use.

Monitoring everyone's actions sounds like it would demand a lot of power. This is a resource that could otherwise be put into restoring the natural systems of the planet and enhancing human wellbeing in other ways.

To be fair to L.X. Beckett, they’ve never claimed that Gamechanger is a solarpunk novel. They and the book’s publisher refer to it as more of cyberpunk meets Star Trek.

It seems like it’s another case of eco-sci-fi that gets mistakenly called solarpunk as we explored in our deep-dive article. 

Our shades of solarpunk star [IMAGE: Claire Alexis for SolarPunk Stories]

GAMECHANGER IS A GREAT READ

As we also said in our deep-dive article, we enjoy texts from genres besides solarpunk. I definitely enjoyed reading Gamechanger. It’s got everything I want in a novel. There are conspiracies, riots and shadowy antagonists.

The characters are complex and relatable. The story is thrilling with plenty of action in both virtual and physical worlds. The sense of peril rises throughout to a breath-taking climax.

A great read [IMAGE: Whereslugo]

There’s a mystery plot, with plenty of action, and some twists that I won't spoil. Suffice to say, they were a genuine surprise and added another dimension to the story, as a good twist should.

Each character and situation is layered with exciting drama that is fun to unpeel, but my favourite thing about the novel is the rich world it is set in.

I would recommend this book to any sci-fi fan even if it isn’t solarpunk. A sequel is also available, which I will read as soon as I can.

Shades of solarpunk tales [IMAGE: Claire Alexis for SolarPunk Stories]

My quest to find a really solarpunk novel goes on.

If you’ve read one that you think meets the definition we describe here, especially a more rooted and thrilling shade of solarpunk please do let us know in the comments below.

See you in the sunshine.

Alastair JR Ball is the Chief Editor of SolarPunk Stories and the co-host of the Moderate Fantasy Violence podcast and editor of the Red Train Blog.

What is solarpunk? One thing or many?

what solarpunk is, isn’t and why it matters

By Alex Holland with contributions from Alastair Ball and visuals by Claire Alexis.

“We shouldn’t attempt to define solarpunk, but what I can say is it’s definitely not what he says it is. What he is describing is eco-fascism.” – Reddit commenter

Newcomers to solarpunk are often drawn to what they hear is a sunnier depiction of the future. An inspiring change to the dominance of dystopian sci-fi we've seen in recent decades.

As they dig deeper they find communities of people joyfully embracing the possibility of more desirable futures. Yet they are also likely to come across the type of comments above.

The biggest and most active solarpunk group on Reddit - r/solarpunk

Chris Yak’s podcast “Solarpunk” has his future daughter writing letters to him from a Mars colonised by Elon Musk. While Kiesha Howard, who did the first TED Talk on solarpunk, has said that’s the last place she’d want to go.

Is only one of them solarpunk and the other a gaslighter? What about the variety of people calling themselves solarpunk who are for and against things like crypto?

WHY ARE WE DOING THIS?

To answer these questions, we have to ask “why solarpunk?” What’s it for? Is it just an aesthetic to fantasise about, or is it something more?

Straight outta solarpunk [IMAGE: By Cienias, City of Compton CGSociety contest entry]

At SolarPunk Stories we believe the greatest promise of solarpunk is to inspire radical change. 

Providing inspiration for action has never been more important, nor urgent. The longer we delay the move to a sustainable and socially just world, the harder it’ll be to prevent nightmarishly bad climate breakdown.

The Road

One of the most visceral depictions of a climate broken world is The Road [IMAGE: The Road]

On a brighter note, however, it’s still possible to build a world that will be massively better for all life, human and otherwise.

IMAGE: Joel Pett for USA Today

Amen to this [IMAGE: Joel Pett for USA Today]

Solarpunk has the potential to inspire the collective action we need, which is why we want it to reach more people, more quickly. We want enough people to get excited and act to make a deliciously sustainable world a reality. 

This is why we think that a lot of the energy that’s currently spent with different people trying to claim they’re the one and only ‘real solarpunk’ is a waste. We want people to start ‘agreeing to disagree’ with others so we might build our movement as a whole.

Local sustainability projects from grassroots green group Transition Town Brixton  [IMAGE: TTB Projects]

In that case you might wonder, do we think there’s any use in defining solarpunk at all?

NOT TO DEFINE

We’ve attended a number of solarpunk events that have opened with speakers saying: “We cannot define what solarpunk is.” This is normally before they go on to promptly denounce someone else’s interpretation of it.

A search of #solarpunk on Instagram has brought up images as varied as dragons, a spaceship that looks like it’s parked on Tatooine, and someone selling what they claim is a ‘real hoverboard’ dressed as Doc Brown.

Are Game of Thrones, Star Wars or Back to the Future solarpunk? In that case what’s different about it? What would a newcomer to our movement make of this?

Confused definitions are coming [IMAGE: Game of Thrones] 

If something can mean everything it effectively means nothing. This is why we think we should accept a variety of shades of solarpunk at the same time as attempting a definition of what our genre is and isn’t.

LAYERS OF DEFINITION

What we propose is that the definition of solarpunk might look like the sun sitting in space.

  • There’s the core of our star - what all solarpunk shades have in common.

  • An outer layer of this sun where different shades of solarpunk sit.

  • The icy darkness of the void which things that are not solarpunk are found floating in.

  • A fuzzy border lies between what the fully cold non-solarpunk is and the still warm shades are.

Our shades of solarpunk star [IMAGE: Claire Alexis for SolarPunk Stories]

CORE SOLAR

For us, all shades of solarpunk share three main aspects in common.

  1. It shows sustainable worlds that are not only possible, but desirable. These are visions of the future we could get excited about living in, not nightmares to avoid. Perspectives on what a sustainable future might look like vary widely and are one of the things that can separate the shades (more below).

  2. It’s more socially just. Again, what people interpret this as varies widely. Broadly speaking, it depicts more equal, fair and inclusive worlds than the one we live in now.

  3. It inspires action. We hope solarpunk art, stories, and activism will encourage more people to get moving to make these better futures a reality.

THE SHADES

Many shades of solarpunk [IMAGE: Claire Alexis for SolarPunk Stories]

For us, the main types of solarpunk are different when it comes to visual aesthetics or written stories. 

VISUAL AESTHETIC

KAWAII SOLAR

This shade has a children’s anime or cartoon-like style to it. These images tend not to have too much darkness or grime lingering in their corners.

They also tend to be more on the fantasy side of solarpunk, not depicting existing places that have been reimagined but ones drawn purely from the mind of the artist.

Munashichi Future Economic View of Innocence 2015

Are you an otaku for this shade? [IMAGE: Munashichi Future Economic View of Innocence 2015]

This can sometimes be called ‘Miyazaki core’, after Hayao Miyazaki, whose visual style is an inspiration for some examples of this shade. For more on whether we think Miyazaki’s actual films are really solarpunk or not see below.

Chobani 1

More than just a yoghurt advert [IMAGE The Line Dear Alice Chobani Commercial]

METROPOLIS SOLAR

This shade tends to feature a lot of skyscrapers and flying cars. In many ways it’s like an update of Fritz Lang’s vision of the future in Metropolis.

Gal Barkan the Valley

Sky high solarpunk [IMAGE: Gal Barkan the Valley]

The buildings vary in their degrees of shininess from spotless glass supertowers, to those decorated with living green.

This is one of the shades least likely to feature any signs of pre-existing architecture from previous eras. It’s normally rendered on a massive scale. Because of this, if people are seen at all they tend to be only tiny figures in a much larger landscape.

Far out solarpunk [IMAGE: Solarpunk by Steven Wong]

This shade is often attacked by its critics as being “eco-futurist”.

COTTAGE SOLAR

This tends to depict small-scale rural communities in green settings. These can be wicker-weaved yurts, earth sheltered hobbit-style dwellings or old rural houses that have been adapted to be more green.

Luc Schuiten Jardin Saline

Wicker world [IMAGE: Luc Schuiten Jardin Saline]

This is sometimes derided by its opponents as not really solarpunk, but more ‘cottage core’.

ROOTED SOLAR

This shade tends to show places that look much more lived-in and could be created in the nearer future using existing technology and resources. It has few (if any) skyscrapers or flying cars. It’s often, but not exclusively, set in urban locations. It’s much more likely to show a real-world place that’s been solarpunked than Metropolis Solar.

WATG Architects Fleet Street London

London Calling [IMAGE: WATG Architects Fleet Street London]

Some versions of this shade can border on the more post-apocalyptic, cli-fi style. This is when they show future communities living in the partially decayed leftovers of our current world.

We feel this shade lives up more to the idea in Adam Flynn’s Solarpunk: Notes Towards a Manifesto when he wrote, “Solarpunk is a future with a human face and dirt behind its ears.” 

Arturo Gutierrez

Barrio solarpunk [IMAGE: Turf War by Arturo Gutierrez]

NOW SOLAR

This shade is more about people solarpunking it now by doing things like local food growing, and jugaad style fixes to make their communities more sustainable. These can range from low-tech guerrilla gardening, to the latest innovations in solar and other renewable technology.

Solarpunking it now [IMAGE: Kyoto shop]

MERGING SHADES

The Line Dear Alice Chobani Commercial

One shade or many? [IMAGE: The Line Dear Alice Chobani Commercial]

Many of these visual shades are not mutually exclusive and can be blended. You can see this in the Chobani commercial, which has the farmers living in a Cottage Solar style community which overlooks a Metropolis Solar looking city, or even the cover of our very own Solarpunk Detective Episode One.

STORY SHADES

For us solarpunk is as much a setting where stories happen as it is a style of writing in itself. Sci-fi genres have often been where love or war stories and thrillers have taken place.

George Orwell 1984

Big Brother watches them getting it on [IMAGE: 1984 by George Orwell]

Think of how the love story in 1984 helps us identify with Winston Smith as the dystopian horrors of his world are revealed to us. Or how the war in Starship Troopers helped Verhoeven sell a satire on militarism to a mainstream Hollywood audience.

Starship Troopers

Beverly Hills 90210 beauties face off against killer alien bugs in Verhoeven’s classic Starship Troopers [IMAGE: Starship Troopers]

When it comes to thinking of shades of written storytelling for Solarpunk it’s the same. The main difference between tales is not so much their subtheme but their style. In particular where they lie on the axes shown in the diagram below.

As we see it, one of the main arcs are from those stories that go from being more thrilling to happier, and from being more fantastical to more rooted.

Where’s your shade? [IMAGE: Claire Alexis for SolarPunk Stories]

There are other lines we could position stories on from being more technophiliac to tech-sceptical, urban to rural. For the sake of space in this piece, and to encourage you to come up with your own, we’re keeping it to these two here.

FANTASTICAL TO ROOTED

If a story has things like genetically engineered creatures and interstellar travel in it then it’s on the more fantastical end of the spectrum.

Things get extra terrestrial in this image often associated with solarpunk

Rooted Solar stories are ones that it is easier to envisage happening closer to now. The technology in them isn’t so outlandish and their future histories are easier to trace to the world we currently live in.

It’s Brooklyn Jim but not as we know it [IMAGE: Crown Heights Bodega EcoHaven Olalekan Jeyifous MOMA Exhibition]

One example of more Fantastical Solar would be The Spider and the Stars by D.K. Mok in SolarPunk Summers. This story has CRISPR-created pet spiders the size of labradors and tree-filled space stations.

At the other end of the spectrum would be a tale by friends of SolarPunk Stories, Commando Jugendstil - A Midsummer Night’s Heist, also in SolarPunk Summers. 

IMAGE: Commando Jugendstil

It has their group doing a guerrilla gardening takeover of one of the main squares in Milan. The level of tech here is mobile phones and seeds rather than gene editors and space ships.

Their story is so rooted it could be set today. 

HAPPY SOLAR

These types of stories have either no conflict, or very low levels of it, and no violence.

Whatever struggle exists tends to be more about things like arguments between friends, unrequited love or struggles about how to best implement localised energy systems.

The Fifth Sacred Thing by Jessica Perlstein www.jessicaperlstein.com

Shiny happy people solarpunking around [IMAGE: The Fifth Sacred Thing by Jessica Perlstein]

You might imagine this narrative shade best matches Metropolis Solar. However these stories tend to be set more in self-sustaining rural co-operative style communities. 

Some other examples include:

THRILLING SOLAR

Murders are rare in solarpunked London 2066, but when they happen you call…  [IMAGE: SolarPunk Detective #1 George Grey for SolarPunk Stories]

These are stories that show an essentially better world, yet one where conflict, violence, and murder still exist, though these aspects of life tend to be much lower than in our current society.

Many of the stories in the original Brazilian anthology that really popularised the idea of solarpunk back in 2012 were like this. These included not just conflict between characters but also murder, riots and even cannibals. 

Solarpunk Ecological and Fantastical Stories in a Sustainable World Published in the UK by WorldWeaver Press

Solarpunk’s genesis, born in Brazil [IMAGE: Solarpunk Ecological and Fantastical Stories in a Sustainable World Published in the UK by WorldWeaver Press]

Other examples include:

AND MORE

There could be many other shades depending on how far down you want to specialise. For us, these are the main ones. You might think differently, if so we hope you’ll share your shades.

ON THE BORDER BUT NOT SOLARPUNK

The SolarPunk Stories sun [IMAGE: Claire Alexis for SolarPunk Stories]

POST APOCALYPTIC CLI-FI

There are a number of stories we think could be fairly called solarpunk that are set in futures that are very close to, but not quite, post-apocalyptic cli-fi.

There are some where climate shocks have meant that major cities have been largely abandoned. In these worlds people are living in small ‘off-grid’ communities.

We think there is a key difference between these and the more hardcore post-apocalypses or disaster porn of harsher cli-fi. This is based on whether or not the stories depict places that are still desirable to live in.

The wretched of the citadel from Mad Max: Fury Road

Trickle down economics to the max [IMAGE: The wretched of the citadel from Mad Max: Fury Road]

When the vibe of the story becomes more “look what ruin we have wrought on the world and now we have to live in this wasteland” it tips it into post-apocalyptic for us.

There is a similar point when it comes to visual aesthetics. There are some images of the future identified as solarpunk which show a lot of decay and even abandonment of old infrastructure and places. 

What makes imagery like these have a fair claim to being solarpunk is 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 the image above 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 making the best of things.

SUSTAINABLE BUT NOT MORE SOCIALLY JUST

There are visions of the future which imply that they are greener than how we are living now but not more socially just.

In Gattaca, our gene-discriminated hero is unable to fully see the beauty of dawn over the vast fields of future Los Angeles solar panels.

Gattaca Solar Fields

Discriminating beauty in Gattaca [IMAGE: Gattaca Solar Fields]

Another is Cyberpunk canon Blade Runner 2049. This shows a desert covered in solar collectors and walls built to keep sea level rise from deluging a different future LA.

Blade Runner 2049 Solar Fields

Solar but not our kind of punk [IMAGE: Blade Runner 2049]

Even some less dystopian films like Geostorm appear to represent societies that are not that much different economically and socially than what we live in now. However they have semi-miraculous technology that has averted climate breakdown.

Geostorm

For Geostorm all we’ll need is tech to save us [IMAGE: Geostorm]

For us sustainability without greater social justice isn’t really solarpunk.

Some might say that following this logic, what has been described as the first solarpunk novel doesn't deserve that term. New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson shows a society that in many ways resembles the politics and economy of now. In it homeless children live under the landing jetties used by high paid stock brokers to park their pimped-out jetfoils in. 

New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson

New York, New York it’s a wet and wonderful town  [IMAGE: New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson]

We would say that New York 2140 can still be claimed as a solarpunk text. This is because in this partially submerged Manhattan of the future a number of its skyscrapers have been transformed into resident cooperatives. 

These mutualised buildings even work with each other to share food, resources and give shelter to those in need. For us this puts New York 2140 just over the line into being solarpunk. 

ECO SCI-FI

Many sci-fi writers have explored ecological issues in their stories, from Frank Herbert to David Brin. It could be argued that some eco sci-fi overlaps with solarpunk, most notably Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars Trilogy. We say these are two separate genres.

Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy

Elon Musk’s dream come true? [IMAGE: The Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson]

The key difference is that eco sci-fi doesn’t have to show a world that is more sustainable or where humans live in greater harmony with nature. This genre simply explores ecological processes through fiction. It doesn’t necessarily show futures that are more socially just than the present.

Hostile environment, is it a fantasy or our future? [IMAGE: The Broken series by N. K. Jemisin]

A story can explore ecology and society and be in both genres. Just like how our first series are both solarpunk stories and detective thrillers.

HOPEPUNK 

Again, this genre can have some overlap with solarpunk, mainly because it shows better futures.
The novels most associated with hopepunk are The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison and Becky Chambers’ books, especially Record of a Spaceborn Few.

Hope amidst the darkness? [IMAGE: The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison]

Hopepunk is very much a reaction to the rise of grimdark fantasy, such as Warhammer or the writing of Joe Abercrombie.

Warhammer 40k

In the grim darkness of Warhammer’s far future there is only war [IMAGE: Warhammer 40K]

For us, hopepunk isn’t solarpunk because it doesn’t have to include sustainability and could even be set in a world that has experienced climate devastation. Hopepunk also tends to (but doesn’t always) have more fantasy settings.

Becky Chambers Record of a Spaceborn Few

Looking to the stars [IMAGE: Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers]

Some dispute the existence of hopepunk as a genre at all. Writer and journalist Annalee Newitz said: "Any kind of story can have elements of hopepunk."  

It is wide enough to include any story where people are striving for a better world and thus can include anything apart from the most cynical of dystopian stories. Titles as diverse as Harry Potter to Mad Max: Fury Road are listed on the hopepunk Wikipedia page.

As a result of hopepunk’s very broad definition, solarpunk could be considered as fitting underneath its very wide umbrella. We personally don’t feel it's a very helpful term to guide readers, and especially not activists, as something they can cohere around.

SOMETIMES LABELLED AS, BUT NOT REALLY, SOLARPUNK

The SolarPunk Stories sun [IMAGE: Claire Alexis for SolarPunk Stories]

The SolarPunk Stories sun [IMAGE: Claire Alexis for SolarPunk Stories]

We want to make clear, just because we think the below aren’t solarpunk doesn’t mean we don’t like them. Our team are big fans of many examples of these genres from The Rings of Power to Robocop.

Robocop CREDIT William Tung - Wikimedia Commons.

I’d buy that for a dollar [IMAGE: Robocop by William Tung - Wikimedia Commons]

We just don’t think the examples below are solarpunk and labelling them as such risks confusing those who might want to enjoy this genre more and even join our movement.

It was magnificent, but not solarpunk [IMAGE: Ismael Cruz Córdova in Rings of Power]

FULL BLOWN FANTASY

Worlds with dragons, magic, and elves are not solarpunk for us. Though, we acknowledge that there are some shades of solarpunk set further into the future that use such advanced technology that it allows for more fantastical elements to their stories.

 Would you call this solarpunk? [IMAGE: Wikimedia creative commons]

For example the winged creatures in these stories are the product of bio-engineering not supernatural forces.

An exception to this would be a story where the characters believe in supernatural powers but it’s never made clear if these forces actually exist outside of that character's perceptions. Stories like this that leave it ambiguous could still be solarpunk for us like Women of White Water by Helen Kenwright from Solarpunk Summers.

Practical magic [IMAGE: Photo by Almos Bechtold on Unsplash]

The reason why we think this distinction is important goes back to what we think the biggest reason for solarpunk to exist is. It’s for people to not only think ”That looks awesome” but also “We could make it happen. Let’s start building it”. When stories are really magical they become less a call to action and more just an escapist fantasy.

MIYAZAKI FILMS NOT SOLARPUNK

Diesel powered [IMAGE: Castle in the Sky Studio Ghibli]

A number of people have cited Miyazaki’s films, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Princess Mononoke and Castle in the Sky as examples of solarpunk. We have to respectfully disagree with this.

Magical creatures face off against steam age industry in Princess Mononoke [IMAGE Studio Ghibli - Princess Mononoke]

While a lot of the Kawai Solar visual style seems inspired by Miyazaki’s aesthetic, we think these films aren’t solarpunk. They’d be more accurately described as depictions of alternate pasts, with more that’s fantasy, diesel, or steampunk about them than solar.

A princess protects her peasants against petrol-powered tanks in Castle in the Sky [IMAGE: Castle in the Sky Studio Ghibli]

CYBERPUNK / STEAMPUNK Etc

This shouldn’t need much explaining, suffice to say we see lots of stuff that seems very clearly from this aesthetic labelled as solarpunk for some reason.

OUR HOPE AND A REQUEST

If we can achieve one thing with this piece it’s that when someone says “That’s not solarpunk” a conversation can be had about whether that thing is or isn’t, or is it just one of its shades?

You might think our attempts at definitions are completely wrong or disagree with aspects of them. That’s fine. We are not writing this with the aim of it being the last word.

What shade of solarpunk are you? Cottage vs Metropolis

We’re putting this out there to try and move the conversation forward in a way that encourages a bit more pluralism in the solarpunk scene. 

If you do disagree with our definitions we have a request. Instead of (or as well as) attacking us, you consider putting forward your own alternate definitions that you prefer. You never know, we might even agree with you.

DIY shades grid [IMAGE: Claire Alexis for SolarPunk Stories]

To help encourage a greater discussion around what the many shades of solarpunk might be we’re making freely available the X/Y axis templates designed by our team mate Claire. These are free for you to use under a creative commons licence.

Argue for Your Shade

While we ask for greater tolerance, or even acceptance, of other people’s shades that doesn’t mean we think you shouldn’t make the case for what types of solarpunk you personally prefer over others.

SolarPunk Stories Manifesto [IMAGE: Claire Alexis for SolarPunk Stories]

If you’ve read the SolarPunk Stories Manifesto or the first episode in our SolarPunk Detective series,  you’ll see we’re pretty clear on the shades we like and those we’re not so keen on. 

Change through Action

At SolarPunk Stories we want to encourage a broader and more diverse movement. One that shares common core values and is inspired to take action with others to make a real difference. 

Be a part of the solution [IMAGE Callum Shaw]

One where people of different shades can agree to disagree about things like greened towers, crypto, and even colonising Mars. That, while disagreeing about certain things, we can still come together to build a more deliciously sustainable world.

We hope you’ll join with us to make it so.

Stefano Boeri Architetti Eindhoven Trudo Vertical Forest 2018 facade view

Green towers [IMAGE: Stefano Boeri Architetti Eindhoven Trudo Vertical Forest 2018 facade view]

This piece was written by Alex Holland, with contributions by Claire Alexis and Alastair Ball who are all members of the SolarPunk Stories Squad. If you’d like to join our squad and help tell thrilling tales form better futures click here.

If you want to get fortnightly updates on solarpunk style art and activism sign up to our newsletter here.

You can also follow us on Instagram @SolarPunk Stories

WHAT NEXT?

We’re considering organising an event to discuss the ideas raised in this piece. If you’d be up for coming to an event like this, and even speaking on behalf of one of the shades please fill in this form.

Solarpunks for a 4 day week

The solarpunk movement should support working less to live more

By Alex Holland - Founder, SolarPunk Stories

Solarpunks might feel building a more sustainable and socially just society would be great if only they had more time.

After working a 40 hour plus week, family and other commitments trying to take meaningful action to make a solarpunk world a reality can seem like a stretch.

Like Oscar Wilde said, “The trouble with socialism is that it takes up too many evenings.”

Wouldn’t it be great if we all had more time to enjoy, contribute and live more?

Oscar Wilde Statue in Merrion Park, Dublin @Wikimedia Commons Arbol01, CC BY-SA

This is where the 4 Day Week Campaign comes in. They are fighting to make a 32 hour week the new normal.

Thousands of workers in 70 companies across the UK are taking part in their pilot program. Many employees will go down to 80% of their previous hours with no reduction in salary. 

For us at SolarPunk Stories the essence of the better future we want to build is one where prosperity is defined more by the quality of the experiences and relationships we enjoy, rather than the quantity of crap we consume.

A shorter working week is one of the most delicious ways we can create a more sustainable, even solarpunk, society. 

Evidence has shown that when people work less they tend to lead less polluting lifestyles.

This is because they gain the time to do things like cook fresh instead of buying pre-packaged food, repair or making clothes instead of getting new ones, volunteer at a community garden, the list goes on.

Others benefits of a shorter week are laid out by The New Economics Foundation (NEF). They argued a 4 day week should be a stepping stone to the more desirable 3 day average.

In their brilliant report, 21 Hours - Why A Shorter Working Week Can Help Us All to Flourish in the 21s Century, other benefits of such reduced working time include greater wellbeing, employment, health, care and possibilities for democratic participation.

This is one of the reasons why in our SolarPunk Detective series, set in a much better Britain of the future, an average 3 day working week is the norm.  

Some of you reading this might think a 21 hour working week sounds too utopian and idealistic even for a solarpunk society.

It’s worth remembering that one of the most mainstream capitalist economists of the 20th Century predicted that we would be working even fewer hours by now. 

John Maynard Keyenes wrote in 1930 that by 2030 we should be working 15 hours a week, or less.

This was because he predicted that continuing increases in technology and output would mean an ever greater reduction in time needed for workers to provide material abundance.

This part of his analysis was essentially right. 

We produce more than enough for everyone to live a life rich in quality experiences and relationships while being low in consumption.

Keynes’s prediction didn’t come true mainly because of factors independent of technological progress. 

The history of the successful campaigns up to 1930 to reduce working hours was one of an alliance between visionary entrepreneurs, like Robert Owen, civil society campaigners and the trade union movement.

Unions were a key part of reducing working hours from as much as 18 to 8 a day, and shortening the working week to 5 days.

Image @Tasmanian Unions

Keynes could not anticipate how successful Margaret Thatcher and her emulators would be. From the 1980s on, they broke the power of the British trade unions, putting in place the most restrictive anti-union laws of any nominally free country in the world.

From then on rather than productivity or technological gains resulting in a further reduction of working time for all, the average working week stayed the same as shown by the graph below from NEF. 

Some of the media reporting has implied that a move to a shorter working week might be paid for entirely in productivity gains.

The evidence for such gains are considerable in certain companies. However we don’t feel it’s realistic for the transitional costs of moving to a shorter working week to be entirely covered this way. 

We support the calls by NEF and Will Stronge, from Autonomy, for appropriate state intervention and regulation to ensure a just transition.

Those with the broadest shoulders should pay their fair share of the costs. This is not least because this change would benefit us all, better and less well off alike.

Time to live in a solarpunked future. Image Credit: WATG Architects

We ask you, our fellow solarpunks to support the 4 Day Week Campaign. So we can all have the time we need to make a solarpunk world a reality.

Ways you can support the 4 Day Week Campaign: