Inventory was founded in 1995 as a collective enterprise intent on carving out an interdisciplinary space from which to put forward a theoretical and practical notion of a 'fierce sociology' that could possibly engage with, and act upon, a variety of sociological and political situations through a range of hybrid combinations of mediative forms and practices.

Inventory have never particularly considered themselves to be 'artists' in the way that this term is commonly understood today. If they are anything, then Inventory are essayists.