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Affective Energy

Chapter of: Solarities: Elemental Encounters and Refractions(pp. 125–132)

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Metadata
TitleAffective Energy
ContributorMyles Lennon(author)
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.53288/0404.1.11
Landing pagehttps://punctumbooks.com/titles/solarities-elemental-encounters-and-refractions/
Licensehttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
CopyrightMyles Lennon
Publisherpunctum books
Published on2023-11-22
Long abstractThis chapter draws from ethnographic research on solar energy activists in New York City to explore the unlikely preponderance of pastoral images of solar technology in a twenty-first century megacity. Why would activists focused on bringing renewable energy to urban communities aestheticize solar technology in rural landscapes bereft of humans? I respond to this line of inquiry by exploring the sun’s affective energy—its capacity to shape our imaginaries. I suggest that the sun’s shine on glossy solar panels enables us to imagine, feel, and pursue the technological natures of tomorrow—a vision that is often troublingly at-odds with the material realities of solar technologies.
Page rangepp. 125–132
Print length8 pages
LanguageEnglish (Original)
Keywords
  • sunshine
  • solar energy
  • nature
  • technology
  • affect
Contributors

Myles Lennon

(author)
Dean’s Assistant Professor of Environment & Society and Anthropology at Brown University
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1702-0580

Myles Lennon is an environmental anthropologist, Dean’s Assistant Professor of Environment & Society and Anthropology at Brown University, and a former sustainable energy policy practitioner. His first research project explores the intersectional dimensions of solar infrastructure in New York City, illuminating the sensorial and emotional power of renewable energy in a gentrifying skyline built on racial capitalism and threatened by climate collapse. He is currently conducting long-term research on young, Black land stewards’ complex efforts to navigate settler colonialism and redress white supremacy through land-based labor in the United States. His research has been supported by the US National Science Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Wenner-Gren Foundation.