The Clearing: A Report From The Future is now online.
In 2017, we built The Clearing - a vision of the future in the grounds of Compton Verney art gallery, in Warwickshire, UK. We wanted to create a physical place where people could learn how to live in the collapsing world that’s coming our way. For the duration of 2017, The Clearing became part school, part shelter and part folly.
Last year, we wrote and produced a publication about the project, called The Clearing: A Report From The Future. It aims to tell you what we did, why we did it, what worked and what didn’t. Most of all, the report aims to tell you how it felt to be at The Clearing, to stand outside the current world, and imagine what the next one might feel like.
We wanted to produce the report in the spirit of the project, as far offline as possible. It was typed on MS Word; printed out and photocopied by hand; and bound in covers made from discarded Evian boxes, collected mainly from WHSmiths in mainline railway stations. We produced 500 copies, and sent it out to 250 people in packs of two, asking each recipient to send one on to someone else who might appreciate it. (If you’re reading this, you might have received a physical one already).
Now, of course, we’re all standing outside the world. So we wanted to make the report available to as many people as possible.
We've scanned it and put it online. There are two scans to choose from.
- There’s a low-res version to view or download here.
- And a deluxe, hi-res, special edition 280MB version here.
Whichever you download, we’d recommend you view it two pages at a time (with cover page) to get the full technicolour experience. Massive thanks to Peter Cragg for all his help with scanning it.
We hope it’s perhaps a little helpful, and, at the least, a little diverting.
Take care, look after each other. It’s the beginning of a new age.
Alex Hartley and Tom James