Questionology – Are you here? Research Practices No 1

This is the age of the answering machine. Of infinite input fields, of prompts and problem solving, of algorithmic feeding frenzy. But wait. Who/what is behind this text? Have you been reading these lines for real? Are you here?

Since 2019 the writer Cordula Daus and the choreographer Charlotta Ruth have explored and trained what might be the last genuinely human quality: how to question, how to make oneself response-able. Together they have created environments, performances, writing exercises and live situations where ideas become material to be touched and processed between people.

Questionology – Are you here? is a zine and exercise book for all those who’d like to know more about the applied art of questioning. Unfolding across three conversations, the zine recombines tricks and moves from midwives, Socratic maieutics, witchcraft and malfunctioning technology. In the opening text an anonymous author-mechanism lures the reader into a series of questions trying to grasp what reading is. Secondly, Daus & Ruth meet the sound artist and editor Brandon LaBelle to reactivate elements of the participatory work Questionology – Program for Applied Questioning (co-produced by brut Vienna, 2021). Equipped with new vegetable names and a towel, the three try out different selves and stances including one of the most complicated ones: listening. Thirdly, the artist Erik Valentin Berg joins the conversation to examine the field of artistic research. Together they defend each others’ titles, fight over ‘useless art’ and get caught in a failed thesis scandal. Hope to meet you there!