Project
About
SOLAR FUTURES- Imagining Regenerative Worlds through Art, Science & Technology, is a collaboration project presented by four cultural organizations working at the intersection of art, science, and digital technologies – OHME (BE), Electroni[k] (FR), LEV (ES), and iii (NL), in partnership with two associated universities: Université Libre de Bruxelles (BE) and Vrije Universiteit Brussel (BE).
The project establishes a new residency, production, circulation and peer-learning program that supports artists from diverse disciplines in creating artworks that explore desirable ecological, digital, and societal futures. At the heart of this initiative is Solarpunk, a movement that envisions optimistic, ecologically harmonious, and community-driven futures where humans, technology and nature coexist sustainably. By inviting artists to explore and engage with this concept, we create a platform for innovative transformative ideas that challenge traditional narratives and promote awareness of environmental concerns.
SOLAR FUTURES is supported by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.
Goals
The program explores three key sub-thematics:
- Renewable energy and circular resources.
- Permacomputing and digital sobriety.
- New imaginaries for political and societal organisation.
Activities
The results of the project will come together through:
3 new artworks - 1 performance, 1 screen-based experience and 1 physical installation - addressing ecological, technological and social concerns, raising awareness to the public and providing new imaginaries and alternative narratives.
A full pitch and media package for the 3 new artworks.
A structured programme of research, development, production and diffusion underlined by green practices, ethical and inclusion concerns.
Targeted circulation of the works.
Public workshops designed to share artistic and technological processes with local communities and professionals.
A solar-powered low-tech design website, opening the path to new practices in the cultural field.
A case study on the program, disseminated among the CCIs.
Solar Punk Movement
At the heart of SOLAR FUTURES lies Solarpunk, a movement that envisions optimistic, ecologically harmonious, and community-driven futures where humans, technology, and nature coexist sustainably.
Solarpunk is the first creative movement consciously and positively responding to the Anthropocene. When no place on Earth is free from humanity's hedonism, Solarpunk proposes that humans can learn to live in harmony with the planet once again. Solarpunk is a literary movement, a hashtag, a flag, and a statement of intent about the future we hope to create.
Drawing inspiration from renewable energies, prefigurative politics, and do-it-yourself ethics, Solarpunk reclaims technology as a tool for empowerment, commoning, and decentralized living. It actively promotes:
- Open-source tools and knowledge sharing
- Ethical tech solutions that prioritize human and ecological wellbeing
- Thoughtful design that fosters community and conviviality
- Equitable futures that center justice and inclusion
Solarpunk rejects techno-pessimism and climate doomerism. Instead of surrendering to despair or dystopian visions, it imagines and enacts positive alternatives in the face of ecological and social crises.
Permacomputer Ideas
Permacomputing (https://permacomputing.net/) refers to an emerging approach to digital creation inspired by permaculture principles: frugality, adaptability, longevity, and long-term thinking. It calls for a conscious, low-impact use of technology, advocating for:
- Energy-efficient code and computational practices.
- Local servers and decentralized networks.
- Open-source tools and platforms.
- Low-tech and appropriate technology.
- Digital minimalism and data sobriety.
- Ethical alternatives to extractive tech models.
This sub-theme is particularly relevant for digital artists, designers, creative technologists, and makers working with code, networks, generative art, machine learning, interactive media, or computational systems - and who are interested in rethinking their practice in ecological and ethical terms.
It offers a space for dialogue between digital creators, green tech activists, and critical technologists exploring how creative practice can resist planned obsolescence, data extraction, and the environmental costs of digital culture.
Imaginaries for Political and Societal Organization Topics
This thematic area encourages artists to envision post-capitalist, inclusive, and decentralized futures - core values of the Solarpunk movement. It welcomes critical and speculative practices exploring:
- Alternative governance models and democratic experimentation.
- Cooperation, mutualism, and commons-based organizing.
- Care economies and feminist economics.
- Community resilience and mutual aid.
- Alternative social infrastructures (housing, food systems, education).
- Decolonial and indigenous perspectives on living systems.
- Prefigurative politics - embodying the change we wish to see.
This focus is particularly relevant for performance artists, community-based creators, participatory practitioners, and artists engaged with activism, social justice, or relational aesthetics. It supports projects that question existing power structures, center marginalized voices, and propose new ways of being together.