Invigilator Research Network

‘Surveillance & Cultural Workers Performance Seminars (SCWPS)’ and ‘Invigilator Drinking Club’

Artist and worker peer review meetings. With administrative support from Artquest. Artquest offices, London, and online since March 25th 2020 due to COVID-19 social distancing measures. January - August 2020

These meetings were for artists (in the wildest sense) who also have day jobs. Invited artists met regularly across six months. Through this seminar series we aimed to collectively examine how our day-jobs and daily experiences coexist with our creative work and develop ways in which we can use and exploit experiences in our day jobs to strengthen our creative work and networks.

The group to provided useful critical feedback on each other’s creative practices and provided collective practical support and encouragement. This latter role was particularly highened during the COVID-19 lockdown, following the completion of the second meeting.

There was a task for us each to complete between each meeting. These tasks helped us engage with the crossover between our day jobs and creative work.

In future we see potential for our collective meetings to develop into something more concrete too, like a group show or an informal publication documenting some of our processes together. This further outcome is now in early development.

Meeting One: Professional Practice?

Date: 29th January 2020, Artquest Offices

Attendees: Eve Marguerite, Simon Farid, Moa Johannsson, Seth Guy, Teodora Kosanovic, Yuyu Wang, Isobel Mei, Raphael Schulenburg, Richard Schmidt

Topics: Degree of professionalisation of ones' personal creative practice, fitting wagelabour into a creative life, efforts to use wagelabour for creative ends, money, the limits of talking about money.

Artists presenting work: Simon Farid and Eve Marguerite

Collective Notes:

Meeting Two: Secret Comms

Date: 27th February 2020, Artquest Offices

Attendees: Eve Marguerite, Simon Farid, Raphael Schulenburg, Richard Schmidt, Andrea Zapata-Nalsen

Topics: Practical workshop on different attributes and uses of tape, [REDACTED] being about gaining or taking away, who/what is it okay to [REDACTED], tactical censorship, methods of covert communication (existing + potential), memory practice, code making.

Artists presenting work: Eve Marguerite, Simon Farid, Raphael Schulenburg, Richard Schmidt, Andrea Zapata-Nalsen, Seth Guy, Moa Johansson (all homework responces)

Meeting Flyer:

Meeting Three: Being Your Own Audience

Date: 25th March 2020. Online, owing to COVID-19 social distancing measures.

Attendees: Eve Marguerite, Simon Farid, Teodora Kosanovic, Rosie May Lewin, Isobel Mei, Richard Schmidt, Yuyu Wang, Raphael Schulenburg, Andrea Zapata-Nalsen, Seth Guy

Topics: Accounts of our experiences of lockdown, approaches to making while indoors, planning future remote meetings.

Artists presenting work: Yuyu Wang, Richard Schmidt, Seth Guy, Isobel Mei, Simon Farid (all homework responces except for Yuyu)

Meeting RiseUp Timeslider Video Transcript:

PDF Transcript

Meeting Flyer:

Meeting Four: Connection in Isolation

Date: 8th April 2020. Online, owing to COVID-19 social distancing measures.

Attendees: Eve Marguerite, Simon Farid, Richard Schmidt, Moa Johannsson, Teodora Kosanovic, Yuyu Wang, Andrea Zapata-Nalsen, Seth Guy

Topics: Witnessed remote solidarity, enforced freedom, self-dicipline, who we make art for, art in times of crisis.

Artists presenting work: Seth Guy, Eve Marguerite, Simon Farid, Moa Johannsson, Teodora Kosanovic, Yuyu Wang (all homework responces) 

Meeting RiseUp Timeslider Video Transcript:

PDF Transcript

Meeting Flyer:

Followed by Remote Invigilator Drinking Club:

Meeting Five: Rethinking Work

Date: 22nd April 2020. Online, owing to COVID-19 social distancing measures.

Attendees: Eve Marguerite, Simon Farid, Richard Schmidt, Rosie May Lewin, Moa Johannsson, Raphael Schulenburg, Yuyu Wang

Topics: Self and external management, creativity during labour, future speculation, liveness and physicality.

Artists presenting work: None

Meeting RiseUp Timeslider Video Transcript:

PDF Transcript

Meeting Flyer:

Meeting Six: The Value of Time

Date: 6th May 2020. Online, owing to COVID-19 social distancing measures.

Attendees: Eve Marguerite, Simon Farid, Richard Schmidt, Yuyu Wang, Andrea Zapata-Nalsen, Isobel Mei

Topics: Time passage, routines, domestic creativity, physcial effects of social isolation, being unproductive.

Artists presenting work: None

Meeting RiseUp Timeslider Video Transcript:

PDF Transcript

Meeting Flyer:

Followed by Zoom catch up:

Meeting Seven: Art at a Distance

Date: 3rd June 2020. Online, owing to COVID-19 social distancing measures.

Attendees: Eve Marguerite, Simon Farid, Seth Guy, Moa Johannson, Richard Schmidt, Isobel Mei, Yuyu Wang, Raphael Schulenburg

Topics: Domestic surroundings, collecting, archiving, duration, working together at a distance.

Artists presenting work: Seth Guy, Isobel Mei, Simon Farid, Raphael Schulenburg, Eve Marguerite

Meeting RiseUp Timeslider Video Transcript:

PDF Transcript

Meeting Flyer:

Curate Your Room Homework Submissions (selection):

Meeting Eight: Art Up Close

Date: 24th June 2020. Online, owing to COVID-19 social distancing measures.

Attendees: Eve Marguerite, Simon Farid, Moa Johannson, Yuyu Wang, Isobel Mei, Yuyu Wang, Andrea Zapata-Nalsen

Topics: Impact of ongoing and upcoming recession on the arts and arts employment, the value and risks of collecting, self-care and self indulgence in art making.

Artists presenting work: Simon Farid, Eve Marguerite, Seth Guy, Isobel Mei, Andrea Zapata-Nalsen

PDF Transcript [video absent due to necessary redactions]

Meeting Flyer:

Lockdown Collections Homework Submissions (selection):

Meeting Nine: BACK?

Date: 15th July 2020. Online, owing to COVID-19 social distancing measures.

Attendees: Eve Marguerite, Simon Farid

Topics: Global disaster and the super rich, popular artforms, evaluations of our experiences of these meetings.

Artists presenting work: Simon Farid, Eve Marguerite

PDF Transcript [video absent due to necessary redactions]

Meeting Flyer:

Meeting Ten: FORWARD!

Date: 5th August 2020. Online, owing to COVID-19 social distancing measures.

Attendees: Eve Marguerite, Simon Farid, Seth Guy, Moa Johannson

Topics: These meetings as connection during lockdown, allowing more time for discussions to evolve, potential futues, aural-centic society, enforced amateur arts, bans on solo-practices, the importance of dancing, studio visits as potential future structure.

Transcript unpublished to allow for freer communication.

Meeting Flyer:

Meeting Administration and Communications

Collective Notes:

Seminar Documentation: