When developing a new concept, or project, how do you map out your process? Are there any guidelines that you set for yourself?
Most projects begin as a conversation between Rick and Claire. Our formal collaboration is relatively new, but we’ve made work, whether it was Claire’s drawing & painting, or Rick’s music & architecture, alongside each other for 7 years. So, we’ve honed a tight conceptual and formal language that informs all of our work. Every project presents us with something we don’t know how to do, so we usually start there. How can we make this particular thing happen? We troubleshoot, and research until we inevitably figure something out—and that solution is usually the first moment energy is really breathed into a project. From there, it’s pulling references, developing narratives, talking to our brilliant friends / AO team, drawing, photobashing. We’re a little all over the place, honestly. We tend to work fast, and for long hours, very much guided by our intuition, and not very much planning.
Is there anything that scares you?
Claire has an injection phobia; and Rick has a fear of heights, and mice in the bedroom. Nick has a fear of reborn baby dolls. Other than that, climate disaster.
Since much of your work is video based, are influenced by cinema? If so, what films inspire you?
We kind of fell into making films—it ended up being a natural transition from painting, and music/architecture. Of all the art forms, film is funnily enough one of the ones that we’ve paid the least attention to, but have found to be the most representative of what we’re trying to say—film is the strongest combination of image, sound, and space.
What is your relationship to nature?
Nature is a problematic term in 2020, and the way we would define it is perhaps unconventional. Nature as an untouched, vast wilderness struggles to exist in the age of climate crisis; it no longer sits patiently awaiting manifest destiny. We believe nature is something all-encompassing—a motherboard is just as much “natural” as a pinecone, or thistle plant, or star, or jaguar. Classic dystopian futures are spaces devoid of that quintessential, sublimic wilderness, replaced by computers, and plastics; white walls with some well-manicured gardens. We think that breaking down the implied separation inherent in nature’s definition—the wall between animal and human, between technology and ecosystem—breaking down this line might give us clarity to coexist as our civilization continues to accelerate.
When was the last time you dreamt?
We probably dream every night, but doubt dreams are very informative to our practice.
How does architecture inform 3D design?
As an architecture student, Rick was never interested in making buildings—most of his time was spent making experimental electronic music. Outside of the technical knowledge that architecture brought, it gave us an understanding of composition, and of pace, a foundation by which to create, and assemble disparate disciplines together.
The Marine Serre F/W '19 Radiation film is very much a digital runway—did you work with live models? Are reference images a common practise?
We didn’t work directly with live models for that piece, but have in the past, through motion capture, and 3D scanning. For this project, everything was created by hand: the models are sculpted and textured first, followed by 100s of reference photos of garments which are then hand-patterned in a 3D clothing program. These are then collaged, and assembled into the final garments you see in the film.