Solarpunk Provocations
Taking inspiration from solarpunk, Creative Commons activist Michelle Thorne proposes using the values of the free and opensource movement, and the intersectionality of contemporary feminism as a means to reclaim our optimism for the future. She emphasises the importance of seeing the climate crisis as an era, making visible the true cost of technology and working towards a Carbon-Aware internet, while making these seemingly abstract ideas relatable to everyday life.
Michelle is interested in climate justice and a fossil-free internet. She is the Senior Program Officer at the Mozilla Foundation.
Notable Responses
Saransh Sugandh, India (BeFantastic Together Fellow ’21)
“For this exercise, I chose the provocation Solar Punk and the various actions of hope that one can carry out and using artbreeder I try to create images and animations of transition, peace and diversity.”
Hal Rodriguez, USA (BeFantastic Together Fellow ’21)
“Song of Solarpunk Storms.”
Edward Hutchins, Singapore (BeFantastic Together Fellow ’21)
“I was inspired by the idea of solarpunk and I thought about this quote from Van Gogh that talks about how even though the sea is scary fisherman go there anyway to fish. I think this represents how the future is scary but that shouldn’t stop us from trying to create a positive one, despite all the scary possibilities. I created a self portrait in the style of Van Gogh to showcase this then tried to create some landscapes that I thought represent the ideas of solarpunk, fusing nature into the architecture.”
Srishti Lakhera, India (BeFantastic Together Fellow ’21)
“I was inspired by Solarpunk. The conversation was between the angle and devil being my hope and heartbreaks. In this poem I am tree that can be part of a hopeful future and I am also a human which is full of my anxiety. This poem is also inspired by the ideas of how to look at landscape from the perspective of those who are not privileged, from the perspective of those whose memory of a landscape bring up memories of violence. Like billie holiday’s song “strange fruit”.
Sometimes when I dig the earth
I don’t know whether to bury myself
or the seeds in my hand.
Will a green tree sprout up
or a muck of blood and bone remains.
Will it fruit some hope
Oozing flesh out of the branch?
Or it takes the shape of reality
breathing in and out the lies.
Sometimes when I make (a fire)
I don’t know whether it’s
a birth or death.”
