Amelie Buchinger: Welcome to the New Age of the Sun. Imaginations of solar futures in contemporary art and theory

Image: Exhibition view, Genossin Sonne (Comerade Sun), Photo: Jannis Wiebusch

Since the earliest documented cultures, the sun has been a central theme in art and philosophy, and is currently receiving renewed attention not only in everyday life in the context of climate change and the energy transition: Under the keyword “solarity,” theorists discuss perspectives on the diverse human and more-than-human relationships to the sun in the present and near future; from experiments with solar energy and photovoltaics to the science fiction/fantasy genre solarpunk to visions of solar geoengineering, artists are addressing the changing relationships to the sun. The lecture takes up this current interest in solar topics and asks what imaginations of solar futures are currently circulating in art, theory, and society: Are we really at the beginning of a new age of the sun—and what visions of the future, hopes, promises, and concerns are associated with this?

Amelie Buchinger is a media and cultural studies scholar. She currently researches and teaches as a research assistant at the Research Center for Technoaesthetics at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and is pursuing her doctorate at Leuphana University in Lüneburg with a thesis on the media cultural history of digital decarbonization. Her research focuses on environmental media studies, energy humanities, and digital and visual culture. Together with Susanne Witzgall, she is organizing the online conference (Re)Imagining Solar Futures at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich in November 2025.