12 August, 2004 Arteles, Finland
MD: This is Melissa DeLaney and it's Monday, the 12th of August. I'm at the Arteles Creative Center in Finland. And joining me today is…
Tom: Name is Tom Bryce. I'm from Scotland and I'm on the same program.
MD: Great. Thank you Tom.
I'm going to launch into the first question. Tell me who you are.
Tom: Um, by name, I'm Tom. I am a human who is currently occupying this world and moving around it. I'm a graphic designer. That is my official title. That gives me money. I'm a artist. That's a passion and a pursuit of mine. I guess if you're going to write a sort of little memo about me, that would be it.
I'm a traveler, a walker, appreciator of music. Let's see what else. Um, lover of nature. Yeah, I think that's it. I'm trying to think what other attributes I can add…
MD: Who do you think other people think you are?
Tom: Hopefully they think I'm someone who's generous and kind. I try to live my life in a kind of non conflicted way. I try to not get involved in meaningless drama I hope people see me as fairly relaxed and, uh, fun. I try to be interested in interesting things. I love conversations with people that, it doesn't really matter what it is, as long as it's something interesting. So hopefully that shows through.
MD: Yeah.
Tom: I hope people think I'm just a nice person.
MD: Yes.
I'm going to ask the next question, which could have multiple strands in your response. It could be about your personal life or your public life or the broader societal public life. So just your first response.
What's the first thing or things that come to your mind when you think of care?
Tom: The first thing that comes to mind when I think of care is probably just like a way of living in the world. I think it's a way of framing everything, trying to live your life without sort of cynicism and, and, um, sort of narcissism. I would see it as a kind of lifestyle choice that you need to aim towards, and through a sort of self analysis that we should all be carrying out in our lives, you can sort of steer things towards something that's more caring. And I think, yeah, creating. I think that is the way, you know, if everyone was aware of care as a way of life, then it would feed into everything. But maybe there's a sort of cynicism in the world that is more of a default, definitely with people my age and below I’d say. I'm 33. Yeah. I do detect an almost cynical outlook on the world, and it's something that I probably also took part in, um, before and probably still do when I don't catch myself. I think it's maybe that's more the kind of ape brain talking, there's a way you can, if you listen to yourself enough, you can try and give out to the world instead of being cynical. I guess everyone's wired differently. Some people are just very caring from day one and others aren't.
MD: To expand on that, what are some of the ways that you do some of those things in your daily life?
Tom: I think just not taking part in things that just seem so arbitrary and kind of reactionary. You don't need to be a part of some things and you don't need to fuel fires. And, I mean, a lot of these kind of, like kind of bitchy conversations or being just overly annoyed at things you can't help in the world. All of these things create these little pockets of anger. Nowadays I'm just trying to not be a part of it. Like, if it's not something that matters, then you can avoid it.
MD: And then what attracted you to the program here?
Tom: I've never done a residency before. and it just seemed like my life, when I do my graphic design work, it's very busy and quite full on. The residency seemed like a nice pause and a break and to get back to kind of stomping through words and things and hanging out with artists again, which I don't really do anymore. It just seemed like a good idea. I applied and then I wasn't sure if I would do it or not. Then I got accepted, and I always have this rule in life that if you look at your life two years in the future, as if you were looking back, would it be better if you did the thing and took the risk or not did the thing? You either do something or you don't, and you have the experience and then you gain from it. Or you can just continue with your life, which is normally the safer option, but doesn't ever feel like the option, that's kind of the fun one and the experience one.
MD: Yeah.
Tom: So that's how I always convince myself to go and do weird things around the world.
MD: Good strategy.
Tom: Yeah.
MD: Moving to a broader response,
What is the first thing you think of societally or culturally within your culture or other cultures that you've experienced? Anything really, when you think of the word care?
Tom: Well, that's actually a good question because we're also in Finland, which seems to be well known for its lack of corruption and transparent government and generally happy civilians, uh, which is interesting.
MD: And why is that, do you think?
Tom: Well, it's funny because the Finnish people seem to laugh at that and be like, no, we're not that happy. But I think it is the grander project. Apparently there is just a lot less corruption here. Like the government is very transparent. Taxes go towards useful things. And it seems like a government that's really geared towards actually making people's lives better. So I guess that shows. I haven't had any full on conversations with anyone here about it. But I think the joke here is that they're always voted the happiest country in the world, but they're always a bit like confused by that.
I'm from the UK, so in terms of systems of care there, the first thing that comes to mind is the NHS, which is a great invention. Obviously that's rife with political dramas, but as a principle, like as an idea. It's an incredible idea. I think emergency services is an incredible idea when you think of these things as just somebody first had to think this was a good idea for societies, you know, like a police force or fire department and ambulances. It's like that had to be a thing that we decided was better for us all to live with at some point. Um, and that is caring. That's making people safer and helping people. And it’s a great fundamental idea for a society.
MD: Thank you, and the next question again, this is multi strands One around the personal and the public, and it's looking into the future.
How would you, Tom, like to see more care enacted in your future? Your personal future?
Tom: My personal future. I get too busy, and that's where all my the tiredness breaks down my moral compass. I need, a kind of bigger picture to create a life that's not quite as hectic. Um, and is more calm and and caring. I give money to a charity, which I enjoy doing. Things like that feel good to do, and I would like doing more things like that. The world is, is getting busier and polluted, and so living just a more friendly existence, is probably the answer.
MD: What about in the big wide world? How would you like to see those futures from your perspective, being a 33 year old person who lives in the UK, you know, on the edge of Europe and there is so much going on and you're talking about extracting that and getting back to your core and removing distractions personally and giving back and that reciprocity.
What are some ideas or thoughts you see would assist a future that that enables that center of calm and those choices and making relationship at the core of the future as well?
Tom: Yeah. Good question. Um.
MD: So it's relationship with the world, with the non-human, with everything that we're part of.
What are a couple of things in the big picture that you think would be incredible enactments of care?
Tom: A great step forward would be to change how social media works. That seems to be making the human race somewhat, delusional and divisive and tribal. And I would say that's a huge thing that's confusing the world. It’s just so clear that one person says something and it's misinterpreted, or you're not hearing the whole story, and the other person says something and it's just a conflict. So either social media needs to be regulated or I don't see why someone can't reinvent social media as a more compassionate, I can't personally see how that would happen, but it just seems it seems like we're currently in the midst of a massive sort of hypnotic rage, with an unregulated platform where we all shout at each other. I think that would be quite a nice step forward for the world to sort of figure out what we're doing online. I mean, it's a hard question. Is it because we also have this kind of system that we work in, like democracies?
Seems like a great kind of way to go like that. Seems caring. It seems like the fairest option. Capitalism is obviously got problems, but there doesn't seem to be any other ideas that seem to work. So I guess we're so far into this, capitalism needs to have a more kind of compassionate edge. In my student days I was like, Down with capitalism. But I think now, it's a system that works, and it's a system that can be improved upon. I think it is just improving upon the situation we have now. I don't think revolutions and overthrowing seem like a good idea and until someone has a good idea that that's a better way. It’s a hell of a question and maybe needs philosophers to look into this. to add compassion to systems. Yeah, and I guess that's what you're exploring.
MD: But that's wonderful. I really love that. That's a really good takeaway. Um, I just made that note. I think compassion is an incredible superpower. And we are seeing more and more compassionate capitalism or business practices. There is that shift, and it almost feels like the internet, that it's just at the stage that it's going to break. Like surely it can't go any further than this hyper stage that it's at, and it's just getting more and more ridiculous day by day.
Tom: Yeah. And I think people are just not aware that they've sort of plugged into it now. I mean, we're all essentially cyborgs. Yeah, because the way it's slowly come about, it's almost like people haven't stepped back and realised how insane it is in a way. I mean, it's crazy.
MD: And it is a hyper reality in a kind of simulacra sense of a Baudelairian kind of horror dystopia. But it's not real. And when you're in places like this and you step away from it and you're in something that's real, and full of nuance and exploration and curiosity and impressions and all of these really beautiful things that humans need, we know it is a form of social engineering. And the more people that step back from that, the better. And perhaps that's something, as a designer, that you could look at designing, the better platform. But it's also generational. So we don't know what this next generation after this generation, the generation after your generation and after your generation, like the little the five year olds at the moment, what they are going to bring with them and what they're going to offer?
Tom: It's true. I mean, exactly, they might be sort of see this as ridiculous and, and sort of improve it. You'd hope.
MD: Not that I'm not putting responsibility on them because it's the responsibility of everybody across all generations to enable proper, respectful systems of care.
I do have one more question and it's about your experience here as well. I know it's too early to tell because every day, every minute, as you were saying before, you're living by the minute at the moment and, you know, everybody here seems to be just very much predominantly in flow. So we just go into our different spaces, we're doing different things and every minute changes. Um, we've still got two and a bit weeks here.
Are there any things that you're cognizant of at the moment that you would like to maintain and take with you when you leave?
Tom: Arteles…well, going back to the social media thing, it's funny because my sketchbook is like the same size as my phone and it's kind of replaced the space in my pocket, but I have muscle memory that just grabs it thinking it's my phone. Um, and it's weird, like, if I'm in a queue in the shop or, you know, waiting for someone, I go to grab it and then I'm like, oh, that's my sketchbook, not my phone. And that is happening without me even wanting to grab my phone like I know it's not there. So there's a muscle memory that's happening. Uh, which is weird to notice that. And, um, so that's a thing that I I think I'll probably just live a life with less phone. Just consciously leave it. Or maybe just have two phones, one for work, and then one really basic one for life. Yeah. Um, so that's definitely something to take forward. I think maybe just creating moments in the year where there's literally no plans. I mean, the joy of here is just you literally just go for a walk, you come back, then you see a bike and you're like, oh, a bike ride. You come back and then somebody's like sitting in the garden and you're like, oh, I guess that's it then. I mean, it's just moment by moment And it feels good. We're very fortunate to be doing this, if you can find places in your year to have a life like that for a week or two, it's it's kind of amazing, so that's very beautiful.
MD: I think that's a really good closing point. And something that we can all do in our daily lives is create those spaces of care for ourselves, which then filters out to our communities of practice as compassionate action. So, Tom, thank you very much for sharing that with me today.
Tom: Thank you.
MD: And I'll just stop the recording. So we don't have the world's longest bit of silence. That was 23 minutes. That was good conversation, thank you so much.
Tom: Thank you.