Drafting Protopia: Art on Solarpunk Economics
Verses of the common song of a biocentric protopia were drafted at my first ever art exhibition in London.
You were probably unable to attend. Funnily enough, me neither.
In this issue, I want to share that art with you, so that you can experience at least a sliver of the exhibition.
4 artists exhibited their work that night:
Gabriela Benish-Kalná: https://www.gabrielabk.net/
Natalia Benish-Kalná
Connor Drew: https://connordrewconnordrew.wixsite.com/website-1/no-place
Myself :)
Each of us explored our personal relationship in the co-production of a liveable future, rooted in the difficult task of actually building a world, by overcoming what conflict, tension, and distress is inherent in that process.
Utopia, which is decidedly a non-existent and impossible outcome (etymologically "no-place"), is unattractive and not worth our attention.
Instead of focusing on what (a static, outcome-based examination) the future can look like, we focused our effort on the protopian processes of how and why drafting these proactive imaginations can build the future we believe ought to be in service all life on Earth; thus the exhibition's name.
Below you will find my contributions to this common draft: my pieces, my artist statements, and the science that inspired them. Enjoy!
AND, if you really like what you see, just know all these prints are for sale, so DM me if you are interested! ;D
BUT, if you just like the images, feel free to save these images and do whatever you want with them, just make sure you give me some credit hehe.
DRAFTING PROTOPIA
This exhibition stands as an invitation, a collaborative exploration that encourages us to envision an equitable future that honors the delicate balance of our planet's carrying capacity. As a response to the seemingly dystopic future humanity is facing, artists come together to imagine futurisms that counter the discourse of the Anthropocene. Confronting the limitations of the burgeoning Solarpunk movement, each work explores solutions that traverse disciplinary boundaries and navigate the intricacies of contemporary polycrises. Through various mediums, each artist materializes their unique approach to the unfolding future, drafting their version of Protopia.
WHEREPLACE, 2023
Print designed with MidJourney, Canvas
Solarpunk is not utopia.
Therein lies the first revolution that can lead us to build the future in harmony with our organic and digital kin. Maintaining the balanced synergies of humanity and technology as Nature is a key pillar of what defines Solarpunk, Balance does not call for stasis, otherwise it would be more accurate to call it death. Balance is profoundly dynamic, muddled with unpredictability, and marked by conflict. It is in embracing and engaging with conflict as a starting point for a higher consciousness that leads to a better society where Solarpunk begins to part ways with obsolete utopian horizons and most definitely away from dystopian ones; and distinctly identifies its future as a protopian path. We are moving forward into a millennium colored by exponential technologies, a degenerating biosphere, and signals of societal collapse, all primarily driven by for-profit and extractive enterprises. Countless brains and hands are at work to shape the future, and not all of them are organic. The rise of artificial intelligence offers humanity another chance to pivot. It is up to each of us where: right into dystopia or away towards a protopia?
The collages I offer attempt to walk the slippery boundaries of where AI can be of service in accelerating us towards a society most concerned with the wellbeing of all, by generating images of Solarpunked Landscapes in my homelands of Costa Rica and Europe. I confess, the images I generated are not “made by me”, they’re made with Canva AI and MidJourney, which I prompted. I composed the colleges and wrote the words. And, inherent in the pieces is the self-awareness that the companies birthing AI image generators trained them with insidiously acquired data from artists all around the world.
Whether that makes the AI, or myself for that matter, an artist, is for you to decide.
MYCOFINANCE Postcard, 2023
Print designed with MidJourney, Canvas
On another scientific exploration stemming from research looking at carbon respiration as a metric for forest ecosystem health and recent developments in fungal computers, I ask the AI to generate images of telluric interface network (TIN) plugs. These biocomputers link with the wood wide web underneath forest grounds. And in a twist, which I believe will come as long as we take the need to obey planetary boundaries in our socioeconomic development seriously, will relay ecosystem health data as an index peg for the stock market. This way, the global financial system riddled with speculators and derivatives that add no value to the real economy, will have its growth capped as determined by forests themselves.
Scientific Resources:
Adamatzky A. 2018 Towards fungal computer. Interface Focus 8: 20180029. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsfs.2018.0029
Ramirez-Carrillo E, Lopez-Corona O, Toledo-Roy JC, Lovett JC, de Leon-Gonzalez F, Osorio-Olvera L, et al. (2018) Assessing sustainability in North America's ecosystems using criticality and information theory. PLoS ONE 13(7): e0200382. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal. Pone.0200382
BELOWGROUND RESPONSES AS INDICATORS OF ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE KRISTIINA A. VOGT, DAVID A. PUBLICOVER, JANINE BLOOMFIELD, JAVIER M. PEREZ, DANIEL J. VOGT and WHENDEE L. SILVER School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, 370 Prospect Street, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, U.S.A. (Received 6 April 1992; accepted in revised form 1 May 1992)
STIRLINGRIGS Postcard, 2023
Print designed with MidJourney, Canvas
In addition to the many adaptive challenges, there are many technical challenges in transitioning away from fossil fuels to a net-zero energy blend: resource depletion, grid decentralization, unequal development financing, insufficient energy return on investment, and more. Borrowing from the disruptive resonant tech pioneers like Nikola Tesla, John Keely, and Walter Russel, as well as recent and impressive findings published in the Royal Society Open Science Journal and crystallization science, I imagine what energy generation could look like in a Solarpunk future.
The Stirling Mining Rig is a proposal for an industrial machine that could deliver regenerative outcomes despite being essentially extractive. It draws from mineral rich volcanic brine deposits deep underground to produce geothermal energy whilst crystallizing mineral deposits from the brine salts. This way, the Stirling Rig mines the high density minerals that will later be refined and used for the energy transition, like copper, lithium, and cobalt, all the while producing the energy needed to power it. Whatever tailings are produced in refining these metals would then be processed by bioremediators; bacterial organisms capable of breaking down byproducts of the refining process.
Scientific Resources:
Blundy J, Afanasyev A, Tattitch B, Sparks S, Melnik O, Utkin I, Rust A. 2021 The economic potential of metalliferous sub-volcanic brines. R. Soc. Open Sci. 8: 202192. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.202192
Hydrothermal Growth of Crystals—Design and Processing Kullaiah Byrappa1, Namratha Keerthiraj1, Shayan M. Byrappa2 1CENTER FOR MATERIALS SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF MYSORE, MYSORE, KARNATAKA, INDIA; 2DEPARTMENT OF MATERIALS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING, STONY BROOK UNIVERSITY, STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT STONY BROOK, STONY BROOK, NY, USA
Solar/Heat Driven Thermoacoustic Engine Reh-Lin Chen and Steven L. Garrett Graduate Program in Acoustics and Applied Research Laboratoy The Pennsgivania State University, P. O. Box 30, State College, PA 16804
Panhuis, in 't, P.H.M.W.. / Mathematical aspects of thermoacoustics. Eindhoven : Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, 2009. 190 p.