🥼🧪Martyn Dade-Robertson is an architect specializing in design computation and synthetic biology, and Professor of Emerging Technologies at Northumbria University.

🏠Martyn is the co-founder of the Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment (HBBE), a pioneering research centre exploring how living systems and biotechnologies can transform the way we design, construct, and inhabit buildings.

🐛🧫This is the first episode of a series on Biodesign. Biodesign is an innovative, interdisciplinary field where practitioners utilise living biological organisms (like fungi, bacteria, or algae) and processes to create new materials, products, and systems, shifting design from a resource-extractive model to a regenerative one 🪸.

🧬 Here, Martyn & Maxim discuss how synthetic biology in architecture could revolutionise the construction industry, from self-healing concrete and buildings with their own microbiomes, to the possibility of growing furniture or even entire building structures. 🍄‍🟫🌱

While the conversation dives into some technical ideas, it remains accessible to anyone curious about the future of our habitats, and the role biotechnologies could play in it.

Martyn’s book Living Construction: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780429431807/living-construction-martyn-dade-robertson

Hashtags: #Biotechnology #Biodesign #SyntheticBiology #LivingArchitecutre #Biofutures #HBBE #NewCastleUniversity #Solarpunk #EngineeredLivingMaterials #Sustainability #SustainableArchitecture #Biology #BioArchitecture #Innovation #Biomaterials

(00:00:19) Martyn's personal journey to Living Construction

(00:02:44) How did you decide to grow stuff instead of build it?

(00:07:45) Is there any interest from the industry in the materials you're trying to synthsie?

(00:12:04) What is biodesign, bio architecture, living architecture?

(00:17:03) How is your approach percieved by collegues from the achitectural side?

(00:26:16) What is an agential material?

(00:29:40) Living materials education

(00:30:21) Teaching Complexity

(00:33:22) Thinking Soils and other projects

(00:37:15) Are these bacterias GMO: ethics, public acceptance, safety ?

(00:39:05) Can we plant a seed and have a building like in sci fi?

(00:43:13) New projects using plants as growing materials

(00:48:10) Bacterial cellulose

(00:51:38) How people will feel inside living buildings?

(00:57:02) The regulations & expectations regarding living material use in construction

Mattie Colquhoun (pronounced kuh-hoon), known online as Xenogothic, is a writer and photographer from Hull, UK.

They are best known for continuing the intellectual and cultural legacy of the late Mark Fisher, one of the most influential contemporary cultural theorists and political philosophers, and Mattie’s former teacher at Goldsmiths London in 2017.

Since Fisher’s passing, Mattie has edited his Post-Capitalist Desire lectures, contributed to various translation projects, and written numerous contextual and introductory essays on his work.

Native to the blogosphere, Mattie has since published several books. Their latest, Narcissus in Bloom (2023), offers an alternative reading of the selfie, in which they argue that what’s often dismissed as narcissism is, in fact, a symptom of deeper political discontent and a yearning for (self-)transformation.

With Mattie, we dive into Fisher’s vision, particularly his seminal book Capitalist Realism, where he diagnosed the exhaustion and imaginative limits of late stage capitalism, and Acid Communism, his unfinished project that sought to imagine how collective joy, desire, and alternative ways of being might form the basis of a new political horizon.

[00:00:58] Pseudonysms and Subversive Aesthetics

[00:07:16] Step 1 - Diagnose the System (Capitalist Realism)

[00:08:18] The Unimaginativeness in Culture & Politics

[00:10:53] "Capitalist Realism" Memetic Engine

[00:11:35] Change Starts with Critique

[00:14:05] Communism as Umbrella Term for all Alternatives

[00:15:47] Generational takes on Signification of Communism

[00:18:41] Post-Soviet Affects Regarding the Term "Communism"

[00:19:52] What Alternatives in Acid Communicsm ?

[00:21:52] Hauntology

[00:30:37] Accelerationism & enshittification

[00:33:31] Different takes on accelerationism

[00:42:02] Importance of political anomalies

[00:50:16]  Visibilise or Dissolve One's Identity?

[00:53:07] Surveillance Impact on the Self

[01:01:05] Queerness is More than Sex and Gender

[01:01:40] (De)Territorializing the Family

[01:08:58] Lesbian Utopian Commune

[01:10:39] Global Crises as Portals To Other Ways of Living

[01:13:35] Alternatives Are Available to All to Learn From

Rachel Rose O’Leary is a revolutionary programmer, poet, and co-founder of DarkFi, a decentralized anonymous infrastructure for building sovereign digital communities. She is one of the leading voices behind the Lunarpunk movement 🌚: a darker, more militant sister of Solarpunk that defends the right to resist, hide, and build worlds away from the surveillance gaze. 🔮

Originally trained as a conceptual artist, Rachel left the art world to explore the political potential of software. Her path took her from early Bitcoin spaces, inspired by the writings of the Cypherpunks and Abdullah Öcalan in Rojava, to developing privacy tools for organizing in the shadows of the surveillance state. 🐦‍⬛✨⛓️

With Rachel, we discussed the failures of mainstream crypto 🪙, her subversive Irish heritage 🍀and why privacy is not a luxury but a condition for democracy 🔐

We hope you enjoy this unexpected synthesis of revolutionary strategy, symbolism and technical insight. 🧝🏻‍♀️

Let there be dark.

Instagram - solarpunk.manifesto / Music - @simocellmusic / Editing - Xenia Kuznetsova / Visuals - @louise_mscr @tengtenho_ @via_minhu / Studio - Edouard Picard from @lpiparis

(00:00:25) Personal journey from art to Lunarpunk

(00:06:48) Possibitily to criticize art is the result of postmodernism?

(00:07:58) Can you describe your initial attraction to the crypto movement and what aspects eventually led to your disillusionment?

(00:14:47) Institutional Bitcoin or free (Cyberpunk) Bitcoin? (Blockchain for banks)

(00:19:52) Why did you decide to shift from the personal liberty towards the collective liberty?

(00:25:59) Why the concept of privacy is essential for a democratic society?

(00:28:56) How does normalization of transparency and surveillance come to life?

(00:38:46) What should happen for people to feel the urge to privacy?

(00:41:27) Core Concepts of Lunarpunk and DarkFi

(00:41:59) What's the dark forest?

(01:03:26) Is DarkFi a prefigurative project?

(01:09:30) Can meaningful societal change be achieved through decentralised methods?

(01:16:51) What groups of people would be able to benefit from Decentralised Technologies?

(01:22:26) Are governance tokens similar to Direct democracy?

(01:34:50) How decentralized technologies can influence on social or economic inequalities?

(01:44:17) How we can do that not only extremist groups would benefit from decentralized technologies?

(01:49:25) What gives you hope for the future?

PS: this session was recorded in April 2024.

🧩 In this bonus episode, Eva, Tarek and Noor discuss their experience playing the Solarpunk Futures game with classmates at the Learning Planet Institute in Paris last february. They share how the imagination process went for them, what it taught them and how they see Solarpunk Futures being used in different settings.

🌀 A conversation full of ideas and excitement, you will want to try it out !

Listen to the interview of the kentucky-based activist and artist collective who created the game: link

…

“Solarpunk Futures is a storytelling game where players imagine the pathways to a desirable world from the perspective of a utopian future. Players use a deck of cards to remember Ancestors and work together using Tools and Values to overcome a set of real-world Challenges. Through dialogue and collaborative worldbuilding, collective and visionary narratives emerge of a new society, along with plausible scenarios for how to get there”

Solarpunk Futures is a project by @solarpunksurfclub, led by members Nick Lyell & Max Puchalsky.

Download the cards to play right here: https://thefuture.wtf/

Instagram - solarpunk.manifesto / Music - @simocellmusic / Editing - Xenia Kuznetsova / Visuals - @louise_mscr @tengtenho_ @via_minhu / Studio - Edouard Picard from @lpiparis

PS: this session was recorded in February 2024.

🧩 Imagine a game that allows you to explore political desires without anyone being able to pull the "that’s just impossible" card on you. A collaborative game where you have to creatively solve interesting issues in a way that seems low stakes, but that actually gets you to listen and think hard about important topics.

A game where you learn as much from what you can and cannot fathom.

🏄‍♂️🌻 This episode features the five members of the Solarpunk Surf Club, a kentucky-based artist collective that created Solarpunk Futures, an open-source tabletop role-playing game designed on backcasting principles and the social and ecological aesthetics of Solarpunk.

This episode is in two parts: the interview of the SPSC collective + a bonus episode featuring our classmates. In this one, SPSC members Nick, Borrealis, Alyssum, Max, and, went into details about the sources of inspiration and intentions they infused the game with. We obviously talked about solarpunk and why they chose to identify with the movement as a collective. They also shared with us what it’s like for them to live and get organised in a conservative state in the US.

If you are interested in Solarpunk’s activist and creative dimensions, this episode is for you!

Instagram - solarpunk.manifesto / Music - @simocellmusic / Editing - Xenia Kuznetsova / Visuals - @louise_mscr @tengtenho_ @via_minhu / Studio - Edouard Picard from @lpiparis

(00:00:00) Introduction

(00:00:47) W​​hy Solar Pvnk Surf Club?

(00:02:37) The Green Room Project

(00:03:40) Personal Journeys to Solarpunk

(00:07:47) Concept and appeal of Solarpunk

(00:11:34) Experiences of Being a Solarpunk in C0nserv@tive States

(00:16:52) Playing Solarpunk Futures in Diverse P0litical Contexts

(00:25:59) The Role of Barriers in the Game

(00:28:53) Choosing Games as a Medium for Solarpunk

(00:35:20) The Role of Tarot in Games and Contemplation

(00:37:25) Spiritual Dimension of Solarpunk

(00:38:40) Mindsets Encouraged by Solarpunk Futures

(00:41:40) Discussing the Gameplay

(00:45:34) A Board Game without a Board

(00:48:18) Unorthodox Formats of Activism

(00:56:18) Inspirational Communities and Movements

(01:03:25) Qu33r Kinship and Prefiguration

(01:08:43) CareTactics Podcast

(01:14:58) Borrealis on 🫄and Ab0rtion Care

(01:18:57) Finding Hope and Sustaining Act1vism

PS: this session was recorded in February 2024.

🌞 Solarpunk Manifesto is back !

🧙‍♂️ Andrew Sage (from the Youtube channel Andrewism) is a thinker, poet and video-essayist based in Trinidad. With each of his videos, he serves us a colorful platter of forgotten histories and inspiring takes on what humanity is actually capable of. An anarchist at heart, Andrew uses Solarpunk to vehiculate anti-hierarchical values and possibilities.

✊ We talked about the flawed myths of human nature, the role of education and upbringing in pushing back against the system, and how to get organized for the small “r” revolution.

🍃 Andrew’s hope is grounded in an impressive self-directed research and archival work.

🔎 His hopeful speculations are grounded in an impressive self-directed research and archival work.

Andrew's YT: https://www.youtube.com/@Andrewism

Andrew's Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/andrew-ism

Instagram - @solarpunk.manifesto | Music - @simocellmusic | Visuals - @louise_mscr @tengtengho_ @via_minhu | Studio - Edouard Picard from the @lpiparis | Editing - Xenia Kuznetsova

(00:00:30) Introduction to Andrewism

(00:03:09) Dangers of Capital R Revolution

(00:05:44) Andrew's journey to Solarpunk

(00:08:12) Solarpunk and anarchism

(00:14:29) Debunking the myth of flawed human nature

(00:22:40) The role of education in shaping human nature

(00:26:05) Psychological Mask

(00:39:45) Community building & solidarity

(00:48:15) Question on Ecotopia: a pessimistic view of racial integration

(00:56:50) Target audience, reaching non-leftist audiences

(01:00:40) Experience of organizing and engaging people

(01:13:31) Experience with people who are indifferent or pessimistic

(01:15:18) What kind of comminities can bring big changes?

(01:24:10) Art and Solarpunk

(01:25:16) What gives you hope?

🌁 For the second episode of Solarpunk Manifesto, we wanted to set the record straight that Solarpunk imaginaries are not Utopian. Or at least, not in the colloquial sense of the term, as perfect and ideal states, standing far away from us both in time and space.

💭 For this, we interview David M. Bell, a scholar who studies utopias, author of the book: Rethinking Utopia: Place, Power, Affect. Through his problematization of the concept, David shows us that Utopia is very much about the present, the real and the felt. It manifests in the resistance of the oppressed and cultural practices that instantiate different forms of being.

👓 David is a curator, writer and musician interested in utopianism, public art and ecology. His book, Rethinking Utopia: Place, Power, Affect, was published by Routledge in 2017. He’s also a member of the Out of the Woods collective: a collection of their essays was published as Hope Against Hope: Writings on Ecological Crisis by Common Notions in 2020. Check his website here: https://davidmbell.info

Instagram - @solarpunk.manifesto Music - @simocellmusic Visuals - @louise_mscr @tengtengho_ @via_minhu Studio - Edouard Picard from the @lpiparis

(00:00:00) Why is David interested in Utopias?

(00:01:54) Thomas More’s Utopia

(00:05:05) Utopian Elements in Culture

(00:09:28) Musical Improvisation as Utopia

(00:14:16) The Prevalence of Anti-utopianism

(00:19:43) Hope vs Optimism

(00:21:31) Educating Our Desires to Envision Better Futures

(00:25:25) The Translation of Utopian Thought into Social Movements

(00:27:29) Critical and Speculative design and Utopianism

(00:30:40) Intentional Communities and their Impact on Societal Imagination

(00:35:16) Communities and their Revolutionary Potential

(00:40:12) The Notion of No-Alternative

(00:41:27) Is Capitalism Utopian?

(00:46:44) Why is Capitalism so Resilient?

(00:51:45) Is Now a Good Time for Сhange?

(00:56:38) David’s Source of Hope

For our debut episode, Andrew Dana Hudson, a speculative fiction writer, sustainability researcher, and narrative strategist, takes us on a Solarpunk journey.

How did solarpunk emerge as a movement? What values do solarpunks embody ? As a counter-cultural force, what politics does it prefigure?

(00:00:00) Highlights & Introduction

(00:00:50) What does it mean to be solarpunk?

(00:03:25) Examples of solarpunk projects IRL

(00:06:54) How did solarpunk develop?

(00:12:00) Solarpunk going mainstream

(00:17:45) Greenwashing and solarpunk

(00:21:35) Solarpunk communities

(00:25:16) Degrowth and solarpunk

(00:30:40) Future of energy abundance

(00:36:15) Cyberpunk vs solarpunk

(00:41:30) Solarpunk as propaganda

(00:44:00) Post-normal fiction

(00:49:35) Climate fiction and Amitav Ghosh

(00:55:33) Literature vs other media for activist fiction

(00:58:10) Disney's solarpunk movie

(01:02:56) Gamification of the Green New Deal

(01:11:00) What gives Andrew hope?

🌱 With the motto “move loudly and plant things,” Andrew urges us to “talk as often and as clearly and honestly and forthrightly as we can about what kind of future we actually want to live in and demanding that of others and of power”.

•••

Andrew is an OG solarpunk. He witnessed the movement leave the confines of Tumblr and inspire an increasing number of people to express their vision of solarpunk. With his 2015 essay, “On the Political Dimensions of Solarpunk,” Andrew helped shape the movement’s political implications and real-world impact.

For him, solarpunk is a counter-cultural force, that reminds us that change need not to be painfully imposed on us.

This episode features discussions about photon-societies, degrowth, land management in the Vatican, gamifying the green new deal, post-normal fiction and Frozen.

✨Take your first dip into Solarpunk now!

Instagram - @solarpunk.manifesto

Music - @simocellmusic

Visuals - @louise_mscr @tengtengho_ @via_minhu

Studio - Edouard Picard from the @lpiparis

P.S. Apologies for the quality of the audio in some parts, the output compression of the recording equipment appeared to be faulty.