Scrolling through solar futures: Reflecting upon the affordances of the internet as a tool for collective worldbuilding

The recent years have seen the development of Solarpunk, a trajectory in science fiction literature characterized by its optimism for using appropriate technology to achieve a sustainable society and peaceful cohabitation between humans and nonhumans. More than a literary genre per se, Solarpunk can be regarded as a subculture in-the-making with thematic and aesthetic specificities that can be traced back to the subculture that formed around the Whole Earth Catalogue beginning in the 1960s and continuing into the early days of the internet in the 90s. As such, Solarpunk is closely tied to the internet and multimedia tools for its expression and formation. In this paper I aim to perform an ecocritical reading of two of the main venues for Solarpunk fandom on reddit and Facebook to explain how these virtual spaces function as storytelling platforms that accommodate collective practices of world-building through multimedia collaging. With special attention given to narratives around technology and infrastructure (a recurrent topic in these communities), I will investigate how technology becomes a storytelling device that invites multiplicities of future imaginaries about the relationship between urban and rural spaces.