Speculative Energy Futures: Relational Research on Just Energy Transition

Speculative Energy Futures (SEF) uses arts-based practices to imagine alternative futures. It is a collaborative, multi-year research-creation project, started in 2017, that brings together artists, activists, scientists, engineers, policy makers, and social science and energy humanities researchers to investigate the challenges and potentials of energy transition. SEF’s various projects are intended to help participants think through ecological, climate, and energy justice, and the SEF team understands that there is no social or ecological justice without decolonization and Indigenization. Its many different iterations (or beta tests) use interdisciplinary research and research-creation methods to reimagine relationships to energy, and redefine actions for the climate crisis, specific to participants’ and their locals. Outputs, which  include exhibitions such as Prototypes for Possible Worlds, the multi-modal FluxKit For Energy Transition, publications including We Were In It: Stories  About Energy Transition, which arose from a series of creative writing workshops, and podcasts, invite participants to identify the synergies and solidarities that we can collectively nurture in order to more capaciously face the daunting challenges of climate change and just energy transition. At this stage in the project, we are synthesizing and analyzing data for peer-review and publication, as part of a scholarly edited collection with a major university press.