I like solarpunk as a theme or concept, but most solarpunk art doesn't quite work for me. For the most part, you've got Manhattan, But With Lots Of Trees or Happy Cottagecore With Robots.
What's missing, for me, is a sense of connection with where we are now. Both of the standard solarpunk visions present a world that has already been completely transformed. There's no hint of what it took to get from now to then, no evidence of what people had to overcome, to sacrifice, to pull humanity out of its ecological nose-dive.
I'd love to see a solarpunk city depicted in the process of being rebuilt. Show me old buildings being torn down, and new ones being built from the salvaged materials. Show me a tower with hanging gardens and wind turbines that's clearly a modified, pre-existing structure. Show me a lovely green zone that's still expanding into a reclaimed industrial park.
Maybe it's just me, but depictions of good futures fell like pure, unattainable fantasy without a connection to the present. For me, hope comes with imagining the path that gets us there.
