this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2025
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chapotraphouse
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see here https://lemmygrad.ml/post/8502357/6685007
the bulk of communist art also celebrates the worker, soviet sci-fi and solar-punk are both offshoots of communist art made to imagine a future to live in, not the people that live in it
do you think labourers are entirely invisible in soviet sci-fi art?
No, because they're prominently features in much of it, e.g:
labourers are prominent features in much of solar-punk media too
so much so that it took you this far into discussion to actually find credible examples
i posted the examples in response to you posting examples, you know?
🤷
are you referring to the google images from earlier that i specifically took from the front page of google?
As well as many other examples in this thread. Workers are simply not a prominent theme in solar-punk, and it's utterly disingenuous to refuse to acknowledge this fact.
so you don't think labourers are prominent in the credible examples you referred to?
https://hexbear.net/comment/6330386
I've already explained myself clearly and repeatedly, I don't see the need to repeat myself here.
so then why did you call them credible examples?
Again, you can read my existing comments where I've already addressed your points. We're just going in circles here.
okay im reading them again, you said that workers are simply not a prominent theme in solar-punk after calling four solar-punk images credible examples of labourers being prominent in solar-punk art, yes?
That's correct, the bulk of solar-punk themed art is not focused on the workers. What you did is cherry picking a handful of images that don't paint a representative picture of the common themes in solar-punk art.
so you don't consider it cherry picking when you post some of the soviet sci-fi art that isn't landscape art, but it is cherry picking when i do it in response?
No, I don't consider it cherry picking because that theme is prevalent in Soviet art, including sci-fi themed art. It's very clearly not prevalent in solar-punk art. I love how you're just not capable of admitting this basic fact.
the basic fact you posted two examples of soviet sci-fi with prominent labourers and i posted four credible examples of the much younger solar-punk art movement with prominent labourers?
if you believe that the examples are equally representative of each respective style then I don't really know what else to tell you here
so considering the soviet sci-fi art movement when the USSR dissolved was about six times older than solar-punk as an art movement is now, proportionally you would need to post roughly twenty two more examples of labourer-focused soviet sci-fi art to meet the same level of representation of the four credible examples of labourer-focused solar-punk art
The thing is that the Soviet sci-fi art movement was a subset of socialist art that was produced in USSR. My whole critique here has been that solar-punk offers a very narrow view of society largely focused on empty aesthetic. For example, if the dispossessed is truly the basis for the movement as you claim it to be, then why does the art produced by the movement not explore all aspects of the society envisioned in the book? Why does it not create a believable and holistic vision of the future being promoted?
the dispossessed is more like a thematic foundation for solar-punk, the ecologically sustainable anarcho-syndicalism is explored in new ways, in the same way that most cyberpunk media doesn't exactly mirror neuromancer or explore all aspects of that particular society (albeit cyberpunk being a capitalist-realist cry for help for an incoming doom that came and went, and solar-punk being more of an ecological/sociological example of what could be)
My point stands, the art driving the movement should strive to provide a substantive vision of a plausible society in order to provide a believable ecological/sociological example of what could be. This is really what the discussion boils down to in the end, and I fail to see why this wouldn't be desirable. Why settle for superficial aesthetics without fleshing out the details of how this society would function.
it is a hopeful vision of the future in the same way soviet sci-fi is, which as far as ive experienced doesn't usually flesh out the details of how exactly the soviet state withers away
soviet sci-fi usually acted as more of an inspiration for those who were already educated by a communist state, solar-punk acts as a inspiration for the much more niche community of eco-socialists in a similar way, in that regard they are only superficial as much as imaginary hopeful socialist futures in general are superficial
As I mentioned in the other reply, I agree with your take in a context of a broader eco-socialist movement.