Chat with Tom James

Tom James and I talk about being exhausted, kids, childcare, carving out 10 minute art time, chores, wiping and beard growing. Tom tells us about his forthcoming project, Absolute Beginners, a proposal to create a new factory where young people can learn to make basic goods in an off-grid, future-proof way. We talk about planning for when the economy collapses, about being half sad and half funny and getting the tone right. We talk about having alternative ideas of how to live from within the world of clingfilm. We talk about the Future Manual, being hopeful and hopeless, infiltrating the art world and creating a vehicle for writing. We talk about starting fires and catching rabbits. We discuss the future, how far away it is and what it might feel like, and the need to learn something physical, opening up a real space to talk about how it feels to make things. We talk about the joy of eating with loved ones, together, and learning how beautiful London could be.

Image:

A NATIONAL RABBIT CATCHING AND FIRE STARTING TOUR OF THE SOON-TO-BE-FORMER UK, 2016. Rabbit-catching workshop in a field near Llwyngwril, Wales.

Links:

http://www.tom-james.info