Duet

Personal, local and global, carefully crafted and decidedly fascinating

New Scientist

Taking conversations beyond the superficial

Deccan Herald

Duet slows down your life and thoughts

Bangalore Mirror

Glimpses of another life in another culture

The Big Issue North

Duet is a collaboration between Invisible Flock and Quicksand; a digital artwork about finding space for reflection, expression and connection in our daily lives, an intimate experience between strangers. Duet is an app that pairs participating individuals and invites them to exchange details of their lives by answering a question a day. Prompted by Duet, a participant gradually builds a picture of their partner and their surroundings through anonymous shared messages, while also finding a moment for reflection in their own lives and surroundings.

Duet is a work that seeks to challenge the ways in which we interact online. Duet is not social media, it is also not a game. Instead it operates in a different space – a slow, dreamy experiential space where you are invited to share small glimpses of life with someone new.

Duet relaunched on 1 June 2020 – Chapter 2, and ran for 100 days. It was accessible to participate in from anywhere across the world. This iteration of Duet sought to provide an intimate and reflective space through which we could all directly respond to this new world we find ourselves in, especially in light of COVID 19. We look forward to sharing some of the beautiful stories and narratives uncovered in this time.

Duet was first presented in 2017 taking form as an app, an interactive web platform and a series of large scale sculptures creating a year of connections between India and the UK.

In its first edition, the app was live for 368 days and connected over 1200 participants in India and in the UK, generating a 25000+ database of beautiful and eclectic answers.

A collaboration between Invisible Flock and Quicksand. Funded by Arts Council England, the British Council and Leeds Inspired. Co-commissioned by Yorkshire Design Group, Quays Culture and Threshold Studios. Supported by East Street Arts, Leeds Bid, Leeds City Council and Unbox.