🧩 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.