Main Project Aesthetics: Plans and Alternatives

While exploring different aesthetics for my project, I found myself continually drawn to one aesthetic in particular: Solarpunk. The vision of a green and optimistic future has always made me love this aesthetic. Creating something futuristic yet natural seems very challenging.

I’m notorious for not keeping plants alive, and this idea adds too much unpredictability. When I went back to the drawing board, another aesthetic caught my eye. Lunarpunk is described as the nocturnal version of Solarpunk. It usually features dark colors, purples, and blues. It still embraces naturalism and futurism but in a more fantastical way, with flowing curves and fungi instead of trees and grass.

The photo is a great representation of the Lunarpunk aesthetic. It depicts a futuristic city with a dark and fantastical twist. Lunarpunk is a relatively new and unexplored aesthetic, giving me more freedom to interpret it.

I have always been fascinated by space, and I wanted to incorporate this fascination into my project. A couple of years ago, I took an astronomy class where we studied different constellations as well as the moon’s phases, so for my project, I have decided to make an educational diorama of the moon’s phases. This diorama will also include small artificial plants and planets/stars to enhance the aesthetic.

To make this educational, I plan to create a moon out of plastic or paper and place a servo motor with an attached light. The light will be shielded on one side to replicate the reflection of the sun’s light on its surface. The servo motor will rotate at a rate of 0.020 degrees per minute, allowing it to match the moon’s phase patterns and replicate them on my diorama.

That being said, I have not yet completely settled on a design, and I still have some hope that I might figure out a way to make this project fit the Solarpunk aesthetic. I created the following sketch to visualize this project with both aesthetics.

While I was sketching, I noticed that it was a lot easier to make the Lunarpunk-themed one. I was also considering adding small trees that light up or glow in the dark to help fulfill the naturalism part of this aesthetic. When sketching the Solarpunk version of this aesthetic, I noticed that I didn’t really have a lot of ideas on how to decorate the model and make it match the aesthetic. I included the sun in the middle, but I don’t know how I would make this dynamic or educational. I also wasn’t sure what to add in terms of decorations to the diorama. I tried adding futuristic-looking buildings and trees, but overall, I feel as though this design falls short compared to the Lunarpunk version.

I will continue to develop new ideas as I approach the start of this project, and I am excited to share my progress.

Sources (Images and Information):

Norton-Kertson, Justine. “What Is Lunarpunk?” Medium, 27 Apr. 2022, justinenortonkertson.medium.com/what-is-lunarpunk-17a8f7bfeeb6.