#post response
Don’t get me wrong, I love the whole art nouveau thing, but I’d like to take a step back and analyze how the aesthetic should reflect the movement. While it is nice to have an end goal in mind, the message should be “We need to work together so the earth doesn’t become uninhabitable in our lifetime.” and not “Hey, pretty pictures of green cityscapes, but also here’s the message based around a few different political philosophies that you have to look into.”
In short I’m saying, we need to put the punk firmly in solarpunk so it reflects upon the movement as one with ideas and ideals as opposed to overly utopian in nature. A nice change would be moving away from cityscapes and focusing on architecture that feels handmade, adding in the punk principle of DIY into the aesthetic while also keeping the greenery would make something totally unique and reflect the movement better than the current iteration does. Changing the aesthetic would also drive home the point that we’re constantly evolving as a movement, constantly growing and changing.
As I’ve said before, with growth comes new challenges. If we want our message to be fully understood and not just ogled at because it’s bright and pretty, we need to make it easier to understand off the bat and not as easy to twist into something harmful where someone could say “If [X group] weren’t around, we could have this future!” Visuals are a powerful medium, we sincerely want them to reflect our intent as well as provide a message that we’re not going away, ever. So now, I ask you artists to rethink the future of this look and imagine one which is more akin to a cobbled together house with solar panels and a water pump out front as opposed to a green apartment complex in a retrofitted city. One of these is achievable in our lifetime and I know you know which one.
That’s all for today (tonight really) babes. This has been @punkofsunshine, have a good one and stay safe.
Okay, shit, I never expected this to blow up like it did, I would like to add a few things.
Thing number one, (basically a summary) yes the art-nouveau thing has its place, it’s nice to have an end goal in mind, but right now we have to think pragmatically and semi-realistically otherwise the movement won’t go anywhere and will be stuck in fantastical visions of the future. We must be fluid and shape the movement into something we want to see it become, a pathway for the future.
Thing number two, thank you so much for all the constructive criticism and additions to the post. It’s really helped spread a message in the solarpunk community (at least on Tumblr) and builds a bigger platform for people with similar ideas to stand on. It’s extremely helpful for stay at home activists like myself (not that I don’t want to participate in direct action, but I have a job and nothing happens in rural Illinois) these blog posts are the best way for me to express myself as a neurodivergent person. Most of the time it’s incredibly hard for me to put my thoughts into words in an eloquent way until I start writing.
That’s all for this little addition babes, have a good rest of your day/night.
