Gallery
Project overview
An experimental visual language initiative that transformed Solarpunk from a niche, folkloric aesthetic into an accessible and culturally compelling framework for imagining optimistic technological futures.
The project deliberately challenged both dominant dystopian tech narratives and the movement’s early, overly “hobbit-like” visual identity by introducing a more sophisticated, inclusive and contemporary design approach focused on visual quality, diversity and participatory engagement.
Main objectives
The initiative aimed to strengthen Solarpunk’s cultural relevance by:
☀︎ Developing a visually refined, emotionally engaging and adaptable aesthetic that could resonate beyond subcultural audiences
☀︎ Creating an open, collaborative visual system that invited reinterpretation and evolution rather than fixed imagery
☀︎ Designing interactive digital tools that allowed younger generations to playfully superimpose future visions onto present-day reality
Achieved results
The project introduced a new Solarpunk visual language at the Internet Age Media conference, replacing its previously limited imagery with a more aspirational and contemporary aesthetic.
Interactive Instagram story filters enabled users to overlay futuristic Solarpunk elements onto real-world environments, creating playful engagement and lowering the entry barrier to imagining alternative futures.
This participatory format helped reposition Solarpunk as a living, evolving vision rather than a closed visual style.
Main reflection
This experiment revealed both the seductive power and inherent limitations of aesthetics-driven future visioning.
While the project expanded Solarpunk’s accessibility and cultural resonance, it also exposed how even optimistic, technology-centered imaginaries tend to overshadow deeper questions of values, social structures and collective ethics.
In hindsight, I recognize that the visual language we created was perhaps too intense and visually dominant. My current aesthetic sensibility has shifted toward softer, more delicate expressions that leave space for interpretation, silence and emotional nuance.
I have also moved away from Solarpunk as a singular framework. Solar energy with its assertive, directional and often masculine symbolism represents only one force among many. Balanced future imaginaries require integration of all elements, embracing multiplicity rather than singular technological narratives.
This tension led me to a deeper realization: truly regenerative futures cannot be designed through aesthetics or technology alone. They must emerge from re-centering human values, relationships and systems of care with technology serving those foundations, not defining them.
Thanks to CGI artist Julie Moline for this creative collaboration!