Solar Power Studio

Visualizing the EV3 Solar Panels

Wendy Philpott — Mon, 09 Jun 2025 19:15:41 +0000

Visualizing the EV3 Solar Panels Wendy Philpott Mon, 06/09/2025 - 15:15

This event begins with a brief talk by Professor Ian Rowlands about the deployment of solar panels on the top of Waterloo’s EV3 building, placing this within the context of solar energy policy and use in Ontario more broadly. A guided tour around EV3’s atrium will follow and – weather-permitting – its exterior and roof for an up-close look at the building’s solar panels

Next, participants will work with Professors Anne Pasek (Trent University) and Marcel O’Gorman to design a solar energy visualization project using data from the EV3 solar panels. No technical or artistic expertise is required, but an interest in alternative energy, sustainability and critical-creative design is a must.

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Solar Futures Hands-On Workshop

Wendy Philpott — Mon, 09 Jun 2025 19:08:45 +0000

Solar Futures Hands-On Workshop Wendy Philpott Mon, 06/09/2025 - 15:08

In this workshop co-directed by Anne Pasek (CRC in Media, Culture and the Environment at Trent University), Marcel O’Gorman, and Adan Jarrett-Poole, participants will work in groups to build a small solar power station and write/design a future world-building scenario for its deployment.

No technical or artistic expertise is required, but participants must be willing to think critically and creatively as they work in a supportive solar futures community.

Co-directors

Dr. Anne Pasek is an Assistant Professor at Trent University, dividing her time between the Department of Cultural Studies and the Trent School of the Environment. Her work explores the environmental impacts of digital technologies, the cultural politics of climate change, and critical making/artistic practices that might provide new avenues through these tricky problems. Her books include Digital Energetics (Meson Press 2023) and Low-Carbon Research Methods (Goldsmiths, forthcoming 2025)

Dr. Marcel O'Gorman, University Research Chair, professor of English, and founding director of the Critical Media Lab (CML), University of Waterloo. Professor O'Gorman leads collaborative design projects and teaches courses and workshops in critical media studies and responsible innovation. He has published widely about the impacts of technology on society, and he has an international portfolio of exhibitions and performances.

Dr. Adan Jerreat-Poole is a queer/trans/crip writer and scholar. Their YA fantasy novels, The Girl of Hawthorn and Glass (2020) and The Boi of Feather and Steel (2021), were published with Dundurn Press. Their short fiction has appeared in Space and Time Magazine, The New Quarterly, Qwerty Magazine, and Soliloquies. Adan is an Assistant Professor of Communication Arts at the University of Waterloo working at the intersection of disability justice and digital media.

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Critical Tech Talk Pop-Up: An Energy History and Future of Big/Little Tech

Wendy Philpott — Mon, 09 Jun 2025 18:54:04 +0000

Critical Tech Talk Pop-Up: An Energy History and Future of Big/Little Tech Wendy Philpott Mon, 06/09/2025 - 14:54

Join this Critical Tech Talk Pop-Up event to hear Anne Pasek, CRC in Media, Culture and the Environment at Trent University.

About the talk

This talk will survey two trajectories for computing in North America. The first, grounded in an energy history of major players in the tech sector, explores how energy efficiency has been both a driving economic force of our digital present and an insufficient means to mitigate its rapidly growing environmental impacts. The second, drawn from artists and hackers experimenting in degrowth computing, 'small tech,' and solar-powered networks, explores how energy constraints are producing an alternative and dissonant path. Thinking these trajectories together, the talk will outline a politics and practice of digital energetics.

About the speaker

Anne Pasek is an Assistant Professor at Trent University, dividing her time between the Department of Cultural Studies and the Trent School of the Environment. Her work explores the environmental impacts of digital technologies, the cultural politics of climate change, and critical making/artistic practices that might provide new avenues through these tricky problems. Her books include Digital Energetics (Meson Press 2023) and Low-Carbon Research Methods (Goldsmiths, forthcoming 2025).

Moderator

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