A & L developed slowly and untidily around a consensus that there were historical and objective problems which could be isolated and described, and thus discussed. This is what distinguished and distinguishes A & L from other artists or artistic formations. A & L saw these problems as matters to be articulated by work, rather than as professional aspects of their social lives to be adopted only once they had left the studio. Conversation, discussion, and conceptualisation became their primary practice, as art.