🌞 Solarpunk Manifesto is back !

🧙‍♂️ Andrew Sage (from the Youtube channel Andrewism) is a thinker, poet and video-essayist based in Trinidad. With each of his videos, he serves us a colorful platter of forgotten histories and inspiring takes on what humanity is actually capable of. An anarchist at heart, Andrew uses Solarpunk to vehiculate anti-hierarchical values and possibilities.

✊ We talked about the flawed myths of human nature, the role of education and upbringing in pushing back against the system, and how to get organized for the small “r” revolution.

🍃 Andrew’s hope is grounded in an impressive self-directed research and archival work.

🔎 His hopeful speculations are grounded in an impressive self-directed research and archival work.

Andrew's YT: https://www.youtube.com/@Andrewism

Andrew's Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/andrew-ism

Instagram - @solarpunk.manifesto | Music - @simocellmusic | Visuals - @louise_mscr @tengtengho_ @via_minhu | Studio - Edouard Picard from the @lpiparis | Editing - Xenia Kuznetsova

(00:00:30) Introduction to Andrewism

(00:03:09) Dangers of Capital R Revolution

(00:05:44) Andrew's journey to Solarpunk

(00:08:12) Solarpunk and anarchism

(00:14:29) Debunking the myth of flawed human nature

(00:22:40) The role of education in shaping human nature

(00:26:05) Psychological Mask

(00:39:45) Community building & solidarity

(00:48:15) Question on Ecotopia: a pessimistic view of racial integration

(00:56:50) Target audience, reaching non-leftist audiences

(01:00:40) Experience of organizing and engaging people

(01:13:31) Experience with people who are indifferent or pessimistic

(01:15:18) What kind of comminities can bring big changes?

(01:24:10) Art and Solarpunk

(01:25:16) What gives you hope?

🌁 For the second episode of Solarpunk Manifesto, we wanted to set the record straight that Solarpunk imaginaries are not Utopian. Or at least, not in the colloquial sense of the term, as perfect and ideal states, standing far away from us both in time and space.

💭 For this, we interview David M. Bell, a scholar who studies utopias, author of the book: Rethinking Utopia: Place, Power, Affect. Through his problematization of the concept, David shows us that Utopia is very much about the present, the real and the felt. It manifests in the resistance of the oppressed and cultural practices that instantiate different forms of being.

👓 David is a curator, writer and musician interested in utopianism, public art and ecology. His book, Rethinking Utopia: Place, Power, Affect, was published by Routledge in 2017. He’s also a member of the Out of the Woods collective: a collection of their essays was published as Hope Against Hope: Writings on Ecological Crisis by Common Notions in 2020. Check his website here: https://davidmbell.info

Instagram - @solarpunk.manifesto Music - @simocellmusic Visuals - @louise_mscr @tengtengho_ @via_minhu Studio - Edouard Picard from the @lpiparis

(00:00:00) Why is David interested in Utopias?

(00:01:54) Thomas More’s Utopia

(00:05:05) Utopian Elements in Culture

(00:09:28) Musical Improvisation as Utopia

(00:14:16) The Prevalence of Anti-utopianism

(00:19:43) Hope vs Optimism

(00:21:31) Educating Our Desires to Envision Better Futures

(00:25:25) The Translation of Utopian Thought into Social Movements

(00:27:29) Critical and Speculative design and Utopianism

(00:30:40) Intentional Communities and their Impact on Societal Imagination

(00:35:16) Communities and their Revolutionary Potential

(00:40:12) The Notion of No-Alternative

(00:41:27) Is Capitalism Utopian?

(00:46:44) Why is Capitalism so Resilient?

(00:51:45) Is Now a Good Time for Сhange?

(00:56:38) David’s Source of Hope

For our debut episode, Andrew Dana Hudson, a speculative fiction writer, sustainability researcher, and narrative strategist, takes us on a Solarpunk journey.

How did solarpunk emerge as a movement? What values do solarpunks embody ? As a counter-cultural force, what politics does it prefigure?

(00:00:00) Highlights & Introduction

(00:00:50) What does it mean to be solarpunk?

(00:03:25) Examples of solarpunk projects IRL

(00:06:54) How did solarpunk develop?

(00:12:00) Solarpunk going mainstream

(00:17:45) Greenwashing and solarpunk

(00:21:35) Solarpunk communities

(00:25:16) Degrowth and solarpunk

(00:30:40) Future of energy abundance

(00:36:15) Cyberpunk vs solarpunk

(00:41:30) Solarpunk as propaganda

(00:44:00) Post-normal fiction

(00:49:35) Climate fiction and Amitav Ghosh

(00:55:33) Literature vs other media for activist fiction

(00:58:10) Disney's solarpunk movie

(01:02:56) Gamification of the Green New Deal

(01:11:00) What gives Andrew hope?

🌱 With the motto “move loudly and plant things,” Andrew urges us to “talk as often and as clearly and honestly and forthrightly as we can about what kind of future we actually want to live in and demanding that of others and of power”.

•••

Andrew is an OG solarpunk. He witnessed the movement leave the confines of Tumblr and inspire an increasing number of people to express their vision of solarpunk. With his 2015 essay, “On the Political Dimensions of Solarpunk,” Andrew helped shape the movement’s political implications and real-world impact.

For him, solarpunk is a counter-cultural force, that reminds us that change need not to be painfully imposed on us.

This episode features discussions about photon-societies, degrowth, land management in the Vatican, gamifying the green new deal, post-normal fiction and Frozen.

✨Take your first dip into Solarpunk now!

Instagram - @solarpunk.manifesto

Music - @simocellmusic

Visuals - @louise_mscr @tengtengho_ @via_minhu

Studio - Edouard Picard from the @lpiparis

P.S. Apologies for the quality of the audio in some parts, the output compression of the recording equipment appeared to be faulty.