From ... in Information Technology Artificial Intelligence Social issues — Mar 14, 2025

Solandium 2063: Playing for Change

How much joy is in your life these days? How much play in your resistance to all the fear, repression, violence, burnout, apathy, broke-ness, and brokenness? When you imagine the future, is it art? These are not cute questions meant to nice

How much joy is in your life these days? How much play in your resistance to all the fear, repression, violence, burnout, apathy, broke-ness, and brokenness? When you imagine the future, is it art?

These are not cute questions meant to nicen up a dark moment – this is an urgent, strategic concern. Learning from the words of too many visionary teachers to list, from James Baldwin to Audre Lorde, from Emma Goldman to Toi Derricotte, our joy is a catalyst for revolution. Sage words aside, the experience of joy as resistance and as a wellspring of imagination remains the greatest teacher of all, and it is available to all of us.

In this interview, we dive into the world of Nejc Trampuž, a young multimedia artist from Slovenia whose work merges art, technology, play, and activism to spark real-world change. From the immersive, solarpunk world-building game Solandium 2063, to his exploration of AI’s role in shaping our future, Nejc’s projects challenge us to rethink what’s possible in a world mired in social upheaval and in the throes of environmental collapse.

“I believe that games like Solandium 2063…not only provide respite but also empower individuals to envision and work toward a better future… Such projects can rekindle hope and agency, demonstrating that positive change is attainable through collective effort.”

In this conversation, we explore how art can be a powerful tool for social change, how creative play can facilitate collective action, and why imagining a better future is more important than ever. All of the projects covered in this interview are made freely available to the public – you are invited to play and enjoy…

Solandium Cultural Incubator | Image: Tim Kropivsek and Nejc Trampuz

Interview:

Can you share a little about yourself and your background?

I’m Nejc Trampuž, a multimedia artist from Slovenia (EU), born in 1993. During my masters studies in photography at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana, my focus shifted towards experimentation with different media and approaches, researching technology and its impact on society. My art is critically and speculatively engaged around socio-politics, with environmental collapse being the main topic of my work since 2017. I am also a member of the Slovenian activist movement Youth for Climate Justice (Mladi za podnebno pravičnost). Between 2019 and 2022 I co-organised and documented many protests, actions and performances in both physical and online public spaces.

Solandium 2063 installation | Image: Daniel Vincek

You’ve been involved in many creative projects over the years – most recently, an interactive, solarpunk world-building game called Solandium 2063. Tell us about this project and, for readers who may not be familiar with the solarpunk genre and movement, what does solarpunk mean to you?

Solandium 2063 is an experimental world-building strategy computer game that integrates artificial intelligence. It was developed in 2024 by me and my amazing team: game designer Simone Cibrario, programmer Gašper Štrumbelj, musician Tim Kropivšek, 3D designers Brina Meze Petrić & Benjamin Čišić, and others.

The speculative game is set in the dystopian future of 2063, months after a breakdown of society due to environmental collapse. Players are tasked with transforming an abandoned, futuristic robotic center for rapid development of a consumerist city into an eco-community through strategic dialogue with an AI. The game serves as a hybrid between artwork, an interactive educational tool, and technological experimentation. AI was used to generate its 3D elements, and the player constantly interacts with AI while planning a strategy. It embodies the aesthetics and values of the solarpunk genre, striving for a just and ecological society while promoting the responsible use of technology.

Solarpunk, dealing with sustainability, is an emerging genre developing in various fields like art, literature, and activism, slowly penetrating into pop culture. It’s very much intertwined with social movements that overlap ideologically, but instead of being doomerish, it presents an optimistic, probably utopian, vision of the future. It speculates about a society that emphasizes ecosystem sustainability, social justice, and harmonious integration of technology with nature. It envisions cities of the future, built with sustainable materials through futuristic approaches, blending with vegetation and nature. Society is powered by renewable energies, cars are being replaced with efficient electric trains and buses, bicycles and pedestrian zones. Plant-based food is produced locally at ecological permaculture farms, on rooftops or in futuristic greenhouses. Goods are distributed fairly among people, eliminating poverty on one side, and enormous wealth on the other. In reality, it is very hard to imagine such a society (even more so the transition towards it), but I see solarpunk as an inspiration and a beacon of hope. It can motivate us as we fight for alternatives to the current insatiable capitalist system, which is harmful towards nature and people.

Screengrab from the solarpunk world building game “Solandium 2063”

Without giving away spoilers, Solandium 2063 presents players with possibilities that can lead to utopian world-building but also confronts them with very realistic and difficult scenarios like extreme weather events, crop failures, problematic infrastructure, AI-related challenges, and climate refugee migration. This is far from an escapist game where everything we imagine in a solarpunk future already exists for us to enjoy. What theory and/or movements does Solandium draw from to inform its logic?

Even if solarpunk is dealing with idealistic ideas, I am trying to reflect the current situation. It is clear that we are not in a good position right now – whether we consider the worsening environmental situation, growing inequalities, or the manipulation and radicalisation of society with growing extremisms and dangers of rising conflicts. It is not enough to just dream about a better future, it is also important to search for a way to get there. That’s why the player is initially dropped into a dire situation, which needs to be resolved, similar to what we are facing right now.

Solandium 2063 draws from various theories and movements focused on sustainability, resilience, and systemic change. It encourages players to engage critically with the complexities of building a utopian society by confronting them with realistic challenges. The game emphasizes the importance of proactive problem-solving and community collaboration in addressing these issues, reflecting the core principles of the solarpunk movement.

Solandium 2063 is an immersive, solarpunk world building game. This clip represents a possible scenario of very bad outcomes resulting in ecological and social breakdown.

Solandium 2063 is an immersive, solarpunk world building game. This clip represents a possible scenario of very good outcomes resulting in ecological and social wellbeing.

AI and various technologies feature prominently in Solandium 2063, both as positive and negative influences. How do you view technology’s role in social change and in facing the climate and ecological crisis? Specifically, could you talk about your choice to utilize AI in your work and feature it in your world-building projects?

We live in chaotic times with very rapid technological development. I have always been drawn to technological wonders, but I don’t glorify them as the one and only solution to every problem we are facing. Technology itself is not good or evil, it depends what we people do with it. In the end, it is only a tool, many times being double-edged. So, responsible use of any technology is crucial, while taking into consideration impacts for people and nature alike. It is important to have an open and critical discourse about it in order to avoid its negative impacts. The public must be well informed in order to define what are acceptable ways of using certain technology and what aren’t.

Technology, particularly AI, plays a dual role in my work, acting as both a tool of innovation and a subject of critique. In Solandium 2063, AI is utilized to generate game elements and facilitate interactive storytelling, demonstrating its potential in creative processes. However, the game also addresses the drawbacks of AI, such as high energy consumption and inherent biases, prompting players to reflect on the ethical implications of technology in societal transformation.

AI is here and it has become an integral part of our society. Whether you like it or not, it is not going away. Therefore, I believe it is better to start engaging with it in a mindful way now while it is in development, to address its positive impacts and traps that it presents to us. For example, we can’t ignore the fact that AI is using large amounts of energy, especially for its training, so it is important to optimize the computational algorithms, to only use it when necessary, and to power it via renewable sources of energy. In a broader context, AI can be even more harmful – it is a tool of manipulation and misinformation, it is a tool for social control, it can be used for scamming, and in a variety of ways in the military etc., to mention just a few threats. In terms of creative production, also many questions are raised regarding the ethics of scraping training datasets and copyright.

But on the other hand, AI can be a beneficial tool – we can use it to visualise alternative futures (as it is in the case of Solandium 2063), it opens a world of new aesthetic, creative and artistic possibilities, and it might help with democratisation of creative processes, which had been more elitist until now. We can use AI for prediction modelling of weather and climate change, or for efficient energy grids and public transport system planning. It is very useful in medical development and in a search for ecological solutions such as sustainable materials. AI can also speed up many processes and tasks, sometimes completely replacing us, so that people could work much less in order to support basic societal needs, while enjoying more free time and nature. Of course, since we live in a growth-oriented society that is structurally programmed to crave more and more, it is likely that the Jevons paradox will take place in how we relate to AI. This is the paradox where in our current system, increased efficiency actually leads to increased consumption, rather than decreased consumption. Deep level societal changes will be needed in order to avoid this, which makes us circle back to solarpunk for transformative alternatives.

More on the theme of reimaging the world – you’ve also recently worked on a film called Rooted in Code and an environmental art & research project/book called Another Future Entirely. Could you introduce these projects?

All three projects, being developed one after another, are based on similar ideas, and all three of them are entangled with experimentation with the latest AI tools at respective moments.

Rooted in Code (2023) is a short experimental animated film, taking place in the year 2057. In a polluted city, a permaculture garden flourishes on the roof of a skyscraper, tended by a robot gardener and an elderly botanist. The film speculates on the degraded state of ecosystems in the future, but at the same time presents a utopian solarpunk vision and solutions to the ecological crisis. It also brings into the equation questions about the impact AI will have on our society, our daily lives, and our environment. It is considered Slovenia’s pioneering short AI film, as it pushes the limits of technology by using AI to generate elements of animation, sound, and even the storyline.

Another Future Entirely (2022) is an AI-based multimedia art and research project that offers a refreshing approach to environmental awareness by presenting a brighter, sustainable future focused on social justice. The project includes an audiovisual projection of dialogues and a book, an anthology of short fiction solarpunk stories, all generated with the assistance of AI. It serves as a mental tool to envision a future where ecosystem protection and social equity are paramount, encouraging the development of solutions to global challenges driven by overconsumption and late-stage capitalism.

Still from the animated film Rooted in Code

In much of your work, you combine art and play with vision for radically reorganizing society. How have you come to pursue this theme and do you view it as a strategy for social change? How do games like Solandium, and art and play generally, fit into our current moment when so many people are suffering from forces that make imagining a better future feel nearly impossible. Can play and positive vision make a difference?

I believe that art and other forms of creative expression, including pop culture, can serve as catalysts for social change. Often artists are among the first to sense changes in societal currents and speculate about the future, and we have the imagination to find creative ways to communicate those topics to broad audiences. We know from history that creatives always were and still are the cornerstone of (hidden) political propaganda machinery, not rarely used for negative purposes. But for me, with this ability comes also responsibility to use art in a manner that will have a positive impact. My goal is to engage audiences, inspire critical thinking and spark proactive efforts toward building a more just and sustainable future. In the current situation, where many of us grapple with fear, depression, apathy, burnout, material hardships, violence and repression, I believe that games like Solandium 2063, and similar mediums, offer immersive experiences that not only provide respite but also empower individuals to envision and work toward a better future. By confronting players with realistic challenges and encouraging collaborative problem-solving, such projects can rekindle hope and agency, demonstrating that positive change is attainable through collective effort.

Nejc makes his art available for free:

Play Solandium 2063
Listen to Solandium 2063 soundtrack album by musician Tim Kropivšek
Watch the full film Rooted in Code
Read the book Another Future Entirely
For more, follow on Nejc on social media: Instagram or Facebook

Multimedia artist Nejc Trampuz at the Solandium Cultural Incubator | Image: Tim Kropivsek and Nejc Trampuz

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