The Collaborative Research Centre “Virtual lifeworlds” presents a Distinguished Lecture with Laura Watts on “Solarpunk Futures: Making wild green energy worlds from virtual seeds”. Please join on site at the Ruhr-University in Bochum on 5 June 2024 18 hrs or online via Zoom.
Green energy is the future; low carbon energy is the future. But where are the green electrons in a length of electricity grid cable? There are, in physical terms, no electrons wearing green hats; there is no measurable difference between an electron generated by a wind turbine and another generated by a fossil fuel power station. Green energy is virtual and immeasurable; its units are given in the equivalence to a mass of carbon dioxide emitted per kilowatt hour. So how to make gritty and embodied, liveable worlds from virtual green power?
Informed by fieldwork around North Sea energy islands and drawing on Speculative Fabulation from theorist Donna Haraway this talk will explore a method for virtual green energy to become the seed for liveable worlds that grow wild out of energy infrastructures rooted in their place and people. It will be a guide to making futures that are hopeful, enduring, and phototropic–turning always towards the light.
More information can be found here.