If you’re going retro I’d love to see some cassette futurism kinda vibes included- tech used to be designed in a way that was more pragmatic, repairable, and helpful, plus I think that era of tech is really beautiful.
In contrast to another persons perspective, I think there are pros and cons to the nostalgic aesthetic- there are a lot of solarpunk things we’ve left behind. Closer knit communities, some amount of subsistence farming, technology designed in ways that are helpful and repairable (I feel old tech was designed like appliances, and new tech is always designed like shiny consumer electronics. Its not about helpfulness, its about meaningless shiny features to include in the marketing), a lower cost of living. But there are also aspects of the modern day world that we want to keep and expand on: improved medical care, the ability to reach out and connect with people all over the world to learn from their experiences or expertise, technology that helps us live in a way that’s compatible with the natural world we depend on (renewable energy, sustainable scale agriculture, etc) and so on. Personally I see a lot of solarpunk as being about rejecting the shitty things of the present and future that were sold to us as valuable changes for the sake of convenience but at the expense of everything else, and embracing the new and exciting things that have substantive positive impact on humanity and the planet we depend on. Its about taking what’s good from both new and old, and rejecting what’s crap about both.
I appreciate this perspective - cassette futurism is one of my favorite aesthetics and I can see how a bit of nostalgia does fit into Solarpunk as long as we can drain the consumerism from it and focus on what was good for people and the planet (eg - being able to repair their own devices, like you said).
If you’re going retro I’d love to see some cassette futurism kinda vibes included- tech used to be designed in a way that was more pragmatic, repairable, and helpful, plus I think that era of tech is really beautiful.
In contrast to another persons perspective, I think there are pros and cons to the nostalgic aesthetic- there are a lot of solarpunk things we’ve left behind. Closer knit communities, some amount of subsistence farming, technology designed in ways that are helpful and repairable (I feel old tech was designed like appliances, and new tech is always designed like shiny consumer electronics. Its not about helpfulness, its about meaningless shiny features to include in the marketing), a lower cost of living. But there are also aspects of the modern day world that we want to keep and expand on: improved medical care, the ability to reach out and connect with people all over the world to learn from their experiences or expertise, technology that helps us live in a way that’s compatible with the natural world we depend on (renewable energy, sustainable scale agriculture, etc) and so on. Personally I see a lot of solarpunk as being about rejecting the shitty things of the present and future that were sold to us as valuable changes for the sake of convenience but at the expense of everything else, and embracing the new and exciting things that have substantive positive impact on humanity and the planet we depend on. Its about taking what’s good from both new and old, and rejecting what’s crap about both.
I appreciate this perspective - cassette futurism is one of my favorite aesthetics and I can see how a bit of nostalgia does fit into Solarpunk as long as we can drain the consumerism from it and focus on what was good for people and the planet (eg - being able to repair their own devices, like you said).