From its inauspicious start in a 2008 blog post to a burgeoning literary genre, the term solarpunk refers to wide range of ideas and images for a positive, socially just, and ecologically sustainable future. Against the backdrop of the 2008 financial crisis, Occupy Wall Street, peak oil, Black Lives Matter, the arrival of global warming, and the looming shadow of systemic collapse, perhaps it should not be surprising to find an expansive youth culture imaginary framing positive visions of the future. Through manifestos, wikis, fan art, youtube playlists, and other dispersed media, solarpunk appears to be morphing from a genre into a movement. This transition will require practices, programs, and projects to materialize visions into new versions of everyday life. This leads to the primary question to be taken up in this course: What is (or could be) Solarpunk Design?
The course begins with an introduction to solarpunk through diverse readings and viewings. This will include connecting solarpunk concepts to earlier countercultural moments and diverse global practices, including DIY and P2P practices for creating place-based infrastructures and ecological technologies. From this shared vocabulary, a series of workshops will prompt students toward collaborative projects putting ‘solarpunk design’ into practice.
Meets
Thu 8:30-11:30am 3154 A&AB