What can designers learn from SolarPunk?
Channel: Design & Critical Thinking
Date: 07/03/2024

SolarPunk is relevant to designers for its optimistic hybridisation and a sense of “finding back a form of purpose and meaning”. Let’s understand how.

This is a recording of the Design & Critical Thinking community's end of year event, "A Solar(punk) End of Year" on 19 December 2023.

"It is snowing outside. the bio-generator fireplace warms and lightens up the room. Our cosy virtual chalet, on the outskirts of the greenhouse town and built around the magnificent pine tree, is dressed for the celebrations and your host, Kevin, is preparing the Swiss raclette with the solar-powered hoven. Let's celebrate this end of the year together!"
https://www.designcriticalthinking.com/a-solar-punk-end-of-year/

The presentation is adapted from a series of posts on the community's website: https://www.designcriticalthinking.com/tag/solarpunk/

And condensed into one article published on UX Collective: https://medium.com/user-experience-design-1/what-can-designers-learn-from-solarpunk-c5109a802ab3

00:00 Introduction
00:57 *Origins of Solarpunk*
09:15 *From Uchronia to Dystopia*
10:25 --- Steampunk
11:24 --- Dieselpunk
15:12 --- Cyberpunk
18:15 --- * The future is the past *
20:18 --- Deleuze & Foucault and the "Societies of control"
25:05 *Weak signals: Where is Solarpunk today?*
28:21 --- * The present is the future * 
34:11 *Solarpunk-inspired design principles*
35:12 --- Principle #1: Design scaffolds for growth and diversity
39:25 --- Principle #2: Design affordances for local shared experiences
42:39 --- Principle #3: Design for more-than-human experiences
45:48 --- Principle #4: Design for human and non-human autonomy
47:19 --- Prinicple #5: Design within multi-worldviews
53:09 Conclusion