Q: So…The first question is …who are you?

I: Ummm who are we? Good question. So I’m I (the instructor). I is short form for instructor and I give the instructions, generally.

Q: I am Q and Q is short form for questioner. I usually ask the questions.

I: You ask some good questions I think. Do you like being the questioner?

Q: I do actually, I really enjoy it because it gives that… There is a sense of creativity and questions where sometimes I feel sorry for you as the instructor because… it’s…it… by default it’s quite limiting. Do you feel the same way?

I: Yeah. I actually I think giving instructions, telling people what to do, is not in my nature.

Q: That’s interesting. so is this project/or this artwork trying to expand that or you’re not interested?

I: i think it’s, I think it’s a shift from my identity and trying to play with another character.

Q: But that is the point of having Q and I. It’s to take away from Oliver and Patrick.

I: mmmmuhuh!

Q: And become different identities to explore what it is to make art, or just our identities.

I: I think its more than just to make art. I think it’s about identity as well. I think once we create a, a different identity, then I think, um , then something stems from that.

Q: Yeah! I think we are on the precipice of making something interesting um, and these these characters are enabling us to do that. So that kind of brings me on to our second question. What is our artistic practise?

I: Ah that’s difficult to say at the moment because I think it’s developing so rapidly over the last…definitely since the pandemic started, but it always for me has been a part of a collaboration or involving people in participatory events. What about you?

Q:But that definitely deserves the sense of collaboration a lot of my research has been around how we work together and I think that’s stimulated by some of the projects we did 15 years ago um, and understanding of where I sit with in the world generally but also within the art world and social practise, collaborative practise and understanding the differences in the similarities.

I: umhum yeah. I think there are some power, especially since we did this project from the lock down drawings 10×10. There is a power about creating a, an environment, a project to involve other people and to create the network and I think that was very important especially in this very unstable de-socialising, you know, in so far as we can’t meet people face to face at the moment I think it’s very important to keep that connection between people and this was a way of doing it I think. we found a away, we found a way, we found the system and we set up the parameters to do that. And I think it worked very well. and I think people got a lot, a lot from that

Q: I totally agree. that I totally agree. I think it will initially it was about trying to find a way for us to communicate and then we built in ways for other people to communicate and I think that was a really important part of the whole project.

I: Yeah I think so too. It worked well.

Q: So what do you think is next for us?

I: Ahhh. Stemming from the 10×10 lockdown drawing project which was (which we just mentioned actually) was very, got 10 artists or more than 10 artists involved actually and then doing a live drawing. I think the live of drawing project was also very interesting to see, how it worked in a much more condensed period of time. But what about extending it to a bigger network? Evolving and developing our network I think that’s the way we were thinking about isn’t it.

 Q: No, yeah! I think there’s an interesting thing in the speed and this idea of creativity and we’re playing with ideas about the actual cognitive element of making, more than the final outcome. Which is a lot of what Art is defined by, that kind of… the initial… the word being the instigator for the drawing and then the speed at which you make that drawing I think has been really interesting and something that I think we can play with outside of this idea of Q and I, which is also going on in the background as well and have two aspects going on at the same time, for us personally, and then us generally as a collective.

I: Yeah and you know that collective. Whatever we call that collective. The other people we involved I think that’s, that’s going to be the interesting point of how we develop it and how we… How many people become part of a so called “collective” whatever/however there exists in the loose form, if it’s more of a let’s all work together again. But/maybe the people who worked on the 10×10 project you know they will become part of a bigger project as well. And creating that network that seems to be what we’re developing more than the actual results. Like you say more than the drawing that drawing is a way of doing that right. it’s…we are facilitating something.

Q: definitely

I: with, with, with the drawings. But then we’re involving other people.

Q: So maybe we want to talk about in the last question is where can we find you? And I think that’s a really important part because we’re more than just us! Maybe you wanna talk about how that. How you see that?

I: Yeah. I think, I think the… Especially since we put a lot of these drawings online now. They’re on YouTube, they’re on specifically for these drawings, which people have now connected to. I think that’s the way that we’re going to develop visually. Um, the network because it was saying about the network but the the network has to has to work in a certain way in a visual way (so that, as we know, which is the reason for the drawings). Um and I think we’re exploring these platforms of how we can we can do that in the best way, especially if we expand this project to incorporate more people. And I think this will be a period of experimentation to see which, which is the best way it’s going to work for the particular project. Maybe it will work, maybe it won’t work, maybe that’s just part of the whole process.

Q: I think we’re trying to inspire creativity aren’t we.

I: yeah

Q: And, I think almost to kind of come full circle, the characters are a way of taking ourselves out of that and taking the personality out of it. Which has been the narrative for Art making for so long and trying to find ways to communicate outside of ourselves and be a bigger, a community of making, and not just personalities making art.

I: Yeah. I identity I think we created it is a neutral and neutral one. if we can say that, neutral from our own identities anyway I mean.

Q: yeah

I: It is loaded actually with you know with what the questioner is? Um is rather sinister in a sense. The instructor is also rather sinister, like Big Brother. That, that people are being directed, or manipulated or, or forced to do something so I think there’s something that we need to consider.

Q: most definitely. But I think hopefully we are open enough, and we take enough feedback on, to er, show that we are exploring these things, and we’re highlighting them to enable them to be understood for ourselves and therefore to communicate further than just ourselves again.

I: Yeah I think so.

Q: So, I think that is a good place to stop.

I: That’s pretty good, huh?