A group of us met up at the Artbar on 18 April 08 to talk about the usefulness of meeting regularly and what we wanted out of the group.

Here is what we discussed:

Why is our practice and our work relevant today? How does the work fit into our understanding of what's happening in wider visual culture today, how it is responding to what has happened in art/design/craft/social history, and whether it is adding anything interesting.

What is the authenticity or 'truth' expected of an artist? There are the competing demands of the integrity of the work and the commercial demands of the art career.

Are we trying to be celebrity or artist? What is a 'great artist' and is the idea of a 'late style' at all helpful?

There is the issue about the 'fine art background' and where we locate ourselves to that. This reflects the way that creative practices and creative industries are structured.

We want to meet in different departments and locations. Where we meet will change the contexts and dynamics of our discussions.

We aren't interested in 'being intellectual' but we are interested in fully engaging with anything that affects our work and anything that our work affects.

Words are important and through our time together we will start developing a glossary of words that we agree the definitions of. Agreeing on the meanings of the words we use lets us talk from the same platform.

History is something we are aware of. It is like a maze as you work your way into it and then back. [Brigit, I can't remember exactly what you said about this but please expand on it]

Structures and theories are important for artists. We want to look at theory but we want to take it apart and not become advocates for particular theorists.

We want to read together, see shows together and open up so that we are also exposed to influential figures from fields outside art, design and craft.

What is my starting point as an artist? What drives us to make art? How do we attach meaning to our work?

What is our generation about?

What is our role?

There was little point talking ad infinitum without our work in front of us. We agreed that it was important to think through the above issues but through our work and our work processes.

We are not inter-disciplinary or cross-disciplinary because we don't see each other as coming from separate or other places. However, we are connected because in some way we have the experience of being the 'outsider' or seeing from an outsider point-of-view.

We haven't got a name ... yet.