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appalachianfuturism · 1 year ago

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I wonder how much of an influence manguebit was on the development of solarpunk. Here's an english translation (by Philip Galinsky) of the original mangue manifesto: Caranguejos com cerebro / Crabs with brains. It's clearly super 1990s but yall can see the potential connections and inspirations, right?

THE MANIFESTO MANGUE The first mangue manifesto was written by Fred Zero Quatro and Renato L. (Renato tins) and was distributed to the Brazilian press m 1991. Below is my translation of the text into English. This version of the manifesto (quoted in Teles n/d: 5-6) is slightly different from the version that appears on the debut CD of Chico Science & Nagao Zumbi {Da Lama Ao Caos, Sony CD-81594/2-464476,1995) (see footnote for major difference).

Caranguejos Com Cerebro [Crabs With Brains]

Mangue - The Concept Estuary. The terminal part of a river or pond. A portion of the river with salty water. On its margins are found the manguezais, communities of tropical or subtropical plants flooded by the movements of the tides. Through the exchange of organic material between the sweet and salty water, the mangues are among the most productive ecosystems of the world, despite the fact that they are always associated with filth and with rottenness. It is estimated that around 2,000 species of microorganisms and vertebrate and invertebrate animals are associated with the sixty mangue plants. Estuaries furnish areas for the laying of eggs and for breeding for two-thirds of the annual fishing production of the entire world. At least eighty commercially important species depend on the coastal marshes. It isn't by accident that the mangues are considered a basic link of the marine food chain. Aside from the mosquitoes and other bugs, enemies of housewives, for scientists the mangues are taken as symbols of fertility, diversity, and richness.

Manguetown - The City The wide coastal plain where the city of Recife was founded is cut by the estuaries of six rivers. After the expulsion of the Dutch in the seventeenth century, the (ex) "mauridan" dty [named after the Dutch leader Maurice] grew in an unorderly fashion, at the cost of mctiscriminate landfilling and the destruction of its manguezais, which are on the road to extinction. As a counterpart, the irresistible madness of a cynical notion of "progress," which elevated the city to the position of metropolis of the Northeast, was not slow in revealing its fragility.

It only took small changes in the "winds" of history for the first signs of economic sclerosis to manifest themselves in the beginning of the '60s. In the last thirty years, the syndrome of stagnation, allied with the permanence of the myth/stigma of the metropolis, has only led to the accelerated aggravation of the picture of misery and of urban chaos. Today, Recife holds the highest index of unemployment in the country. More than half of its inhabitants live in favelas [slums] and alagados [shacks built on stilts in the mangue]. And, according to an institute of population studies of Washington, it is today the fourth worst city of the world in which to live.

Mangue - The Scene Emergency! A shock, quick, or Recife will die of a heart attack. You don't need to be a doctor to know that the simplest way to stop the heart of a person is to obstruct its veins. The fastest way also to obstruct and evacuate the soul of a city like Recife is to kill its rivers and fill up its estuaries. So what is there to do to prevent sinking in the chronic depression that paralyzes the citizen? Is there a way to give back the spirit, delobotomize/recharge the batteries of the city? Simple, fust inject a little energy in the mud and stimulate what still remains of the fertility in the veins of Recife. In mid-91, an organism/ nucleus of research and creation of pop ideas began to be generated and articulated in various points of the city. The objective is to engender an "energetic circuit" capable of allegorically connecting the good vibrations of the mangue with the world network of the circulation of pop concepts. Image symbol: a parabolic antenna put in the mud. Or a caranguejo [crab] remixing ANTHENA by Kraftwerk [a Euro-tech group] on the computer. The mangueboys and manguegirls are individuals interested in Chaos Theory, World Music, Legislation about means of communication, ethnic Conflicts, Hip Hop, Chance, Bezerra da Silva [a samba musician of Rio originally from Recife], Virtual Reality, Sex, Design, Violence and all the advances of the Chemical applied in the terrain of the alteration/expansion of consciousness.* Mangueboys and manguegirls frequent locales like the Bar do Caranguejo [The Crab Bar] and the Bar do Mare [The Tide Bar]. Mangueboys and Manguegirls are recording the collection "Caranguejos ComCerebro" [Crabs with Brains], which brings together the bands Mundo Livre S/A, Loustal, Chico Science & Nacao Zumbi, and Lamento Negro.

*In the liner notes to Da lama Ao Cios, the rest of the manifesto reads as follows: "Mangueboys and manguegirls are individuals interested in charts, interactive TV, anti-psychiatry, Bezerra da Silva, Hip Hop, miction-, [a made op term that apparently plays on the words for "media" and "idiot* or "idiotic"], artism, street music, John Coltrane, chance, non-virtual sex, ethnic conflicts, and all the advances of the chemical applied in the terrain, of the alteration/expansion of consciousness."

The history of Solarpunk

Okay, I guess this has to be said, because the people will always claim the same wrong thing: No, Solarpunk did not "start out as an aesthetic". Jesus, where the hell does this claim even come from? Like, honestly, I am asking.

Solarpunk started out as a genre, that yes, did also include design elements, but also literary elements. A vaguely defined literary genre, but a genre never the less.

And I am not even talking about those early books that we today also claim under the Solarpunk umbrella. So, no, I am not talking about Ursula K. LeGuin, even though she definitely was a big influence on the genre.

The actual history of Solarpunk goes something like that: In the late 1990s and early 2000s the term "Ecopunk" was coined, which was used to refer to books that kinda fit into the Cyberpunk genre umbrella, but were more focused on ecological themes. This was less focused on the "high tech, high life" mantra that Solarpunk ended up with, but it was SciFi stories, that were focused on people interacting with the environment. Often set to a backdrop of environmental apocalypse. Now, other than Solarpunk just a bit later, this genre never got that well defined (especially with Solarpunk kinda taking over the role). As such there is only a handful of things that ever officially called themselves Ecopunk.

At the same time, though, the same sort of thought was picked up in the Brazilian science fiction scene, where the idea was further developed. Both artistically, where it got a lot of influence from the Amazofuturism movement, but also as an ideology. In this there were the ideas from Ecopunk as the "scifi in the ecological collaps" in there, but also the idea of "scifi with technology that allows us to live within the changing world/allows us to live more in harmony with nature".

Now, we do not really know who came up with the idea of naming this "Solarpunk". From all I can find the earliest mention of the term "Solarpunk" that is still online today is in this article from the Blog Republic of Bees. But given the way the blogger talks about it, it is clear there was some vague definition of the genre before it.

These days it is kinda argued about whether that title originally arose in Brazil or in the Anglosphere. But it seems very likely that the term was coined between 2006 and 2008, coming either out of the Brazilian movement around Ecopunk or out of the English Steampunk movement (specifically the literary branch of the Steampunk genre).

In the following years it was thrown around for a bit (there is an archived Wired article from 2009, that mentions the term once, as well as one other article), but for the moment there was not a lot happening in this regard.

Until 2012, when the Brazilian Solarpunk movement really started to bloom and at the same time in Italy Commando Jugendstil made their appearance. In 2012 in Brazil the anthology "Solarpunk: Histórias ecológicas e fantásticas em um mundo sustentável" was released (that did get an English translation not too long ago) establishing some groundwork for the genre. And Commando Jugendstil, who describe themselves as both a "Communication Project" and an "Art Movement", started to work on Solarpunk in Italy. Now, Commando Jugendstil is a bit more complicated than just one or the other. As they very much were a big influence on some of the aesthetic concepts, but also were releasing short stories and did some actual punky political action within Italy.

And all of that was happening in 2012, where the term really started to take off.

And only after this, in 2014, Solarpunk became this aesthetic we know today, when a (now defuct) tumblr blog started posting photos, artworks and other aesthetical things under the caption of Solarpunk. Especially as it was the first time the term was widely used within the Anglosphere.

Undoubtedly: This was probably how most people first learned of Solarpunk... But it was not how Solarpunk started. So, please stop spreading that myth.

The reason this bothers me so much is, that it so widely ignores how this movement definitely has its roots within Latin America and specifically Brazil. Instead this myth basically tries to claim Solarpunk as a thing that fully and completely originated within the anglosphere. Which is just is not.

And yes, there was artistic aspects to that early Solarpunk movement, too. But also a literary and political aspectt. That is not something that was put onto a term that was originally an aesthetic - but rather it was something that was there from the very beginning.

Again: There has been an artistic and aesthetic aspect in Solarpunk from the very beginning, yes. But there has been a literary and political aspect in it the entire time, too. And trying to divorce Solarpunk from those things is just wrong and also... kinda misses the point.

So, please. Just stop claiming that entire "it has been an aesthetic first" thing. Solarpunk is a genre of fiction, it is a political movement, just as much as it is an artistic movement. Always has been. And there has always been punk in it. So, please, stop acting as if Solarpunk is just "pretty artistic vibes". It is not.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk, I guess.

#solarpunk #manifesto #brazilian futurism #1990s #mangue #manguebit #mangue beat #chico science #fred zero quatro #sci fi #afrofuturism #nacao zumbi #mundo livre s/a

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