QUESTION TIME

STATEMENT OF INTENT 2.2

ROOM FOR QUESTIONS

FRAMEWORK CONVENTION ON CONVERSATION -Secretariat

CONVENTION-CADRE SUR LA CONVERSATION Secrétariat

For use of the media only.

PRESS RELEASE
Statement of Intent 2.2 from Question Time [QT], Copenhagen, Denmark. Question Time
hold daily summits somewhere in Copenhagen. After each summit a new statement of
intent is issued.

ROOM FOR QUESTIONS

Summit Date: 14 December 2009

Attending: David Berridge, Rachel Lois Clapham, Alex Eisenberg, Neil Bennun, Mary Paterson
Location: Dyrehavn Cafe, Sonder Boulevard
Minute Taker: Rachel Lois Clapham

My last blog post had 16 words in it. It took two hours for me to write. I felt I had to make sure the words
had the right sort of room. Enough room to move about in, perhaps freely is the wrong word, but the sort of
space- and here I’m imaging a regular room with a roof, four walls and a door – that could be read or
function on a variety of levels.

Such a room needs to have no clutter. No tripping over things on the way to the table or the coffee pot.
This room is very difficult to write, language being entirely surplus by nature and unsuited to such a
purpose. I also think that we – by which I mean writers – delude ourselves as to the purpose of writing
which is perhaps only ever a distraction – albeit a central one- in such a room. The task in hand is always
the table or the coffee pot.

A statement of intent would have no such clutter. No such personal paraphernalia. It would be big but
being inside it would be a tight fit, not much room to maneuver.

Our room here is small, minute even (is it just one room, or a warren of different little corridors, halls, or
reception spaces on the same floor?) One thing is for sure, this room is made for more than one person. It
is a small space into which big things fit, although sometimes you have to squeeze them through the door
a bit.

It’s about Climate Change

It’s about COP15
It’s about Copenhagen
It’s about the home
It’s about a room
It’s about a table
It’s about a coffee pot

Only one person at a time

All furniture is carefully arranged