Solarities: Thinking with the Sun

September 21, 5-7 p.m.
Milieux Institute (terrace on the 11th floor of Concordia’s EV building, 1515 Saint-Catherine St W)
Register here

What might a world look like if our societies, communications technologies, and economies were organized around energy from the sun rather than from fossil fuels?

Join us on September 21, 2022 for a critical engagement with the possibilities and potentials of solar energy. What might a world look like if our societies, communications technologies, and economies were organized around energy from the sun rather than from fossil fuels? What new infrastructures, institutions, and power structures would such a transition require? What forms of creativity, collectivity, and social organizing might we need?

Our conversation will be anchored in the work of two collectives who have been grappling with these questions:

• The Solar Media Collective is a group of researchers and makers interested in the question of how to reimagine energy and communications infrastructure for a low-carbon world. Among other things, they have been building a solar-powered server which will be used to host collaboratively developed art, games, and other material. The server will be on display at the event for participants to learn more and interact with.
   
• The After Oil Collective is an interdisciplinary group of international scholars, students, artists, activists, and practitioners who came together in 2019 for a summer school focused on imagining a world powered by solar energy. The collective recently published a short book, entitled Solarities: Seeking Energy Justice (read it free online at https://manifold.umn.edu/projects/solarities).

The event is co-sponsered by the AHCS speaker series and will involve a roundtable discussion with members of the Solar Media Collective about solar energy and its promises, possibilities, and potential problems. Afterwards, participants, contributors, and audience members are invited to join an open discussion relating to the themes raised by the roundtable.