We can all recall moments when art and the process of creativity strike that cord within, unleashing new ideas and future visions. Warren Du Preez and Nick Thornton Jones are the pioneers in image- and film-making who are currently exploring VR technology with Icelandic artist Björk. We delved deeper into how they create such consciousness-bending experiences

Imagine a fusion of visual art, sound, film, gaming, architecture, design and theatre. A hint of what virtual reality feels like and its artistic possibilities. These might be accurate reference points, but at the same time this medium is unfolding in unexplored and unexpected ways, inviting creators to navigate without any maps or pre-written rulebooks.

Warren Du Preez and Nick Thornton Jones are no strangers to technology, and artists around the world are drawn to them like moths to a flame to get their visionary touch on things. To name a few: fashion designer Iris van Herpen, trip-hoppers Unkle and Massive Attack and, of course, Björk, whose ongoing collaboration with them can still be seen in her Björk Digital exhibition, which is on tour around the world as we type.

Their VR film clip for Björk’s track Notget is “a work in process”, making it one of the most advanced VR experiences at this point in time, with a new release/updated version planned for November. It is offering an experience that feels even more real and true than watching Björk live. VR is a unique tool, with qualities closely linked to the science of optics and neurological stimuli – in other words, the ability to fool the brain to create the sensation of embodiment. Notget becomes an invitation into a space in her mind, a gateway to her dreams. From this perspective, VR is finally offering our dreams and fantasies a visual world of their own and this might be more important than we think. Because isn’t the future born from our dreams?

VR technology is a new “paintbrush” for artists to use. But in the end it all comes down to a visionary eye finding new ways to not only show people new art, but to make them see something new. The Forumist found a moment in Du Preez and Thornton Jones’s schedules to talk to them about their creative process, the possibilities of VR and their collaborations with Björk and future projects.

When stepping into the world of your image making, film and VR, words like conscious/unconscious, dreams/reality, digital/craftsmanship and alchemy of light come to mind. How would you describe the motivation behind what you do?

WDP: “I think this motivation to create something is deeply ingrained in you as an artist and human being. I believe you are motivated by the process itself and another important part of it is to yield, experiment and explore things that you haven’t seen or found before. Things that excites you.”

NTJ: “As Warren said, it is about things you haven’t seen before or explored and also the idea of being able to achieve something. Our process is often quite intuitive. We approach it in quite a functional way at times, and then it is about allowing these things to unfold. It’s about how you continue to work with an idea, after you have captured something and post the initial discussions of things. It is a very intuitive process to us.”

A reality that exists inside another reality inside another reality. Why were you initially drawn to VR technology?

NTJ: “We are diving into the new frontier of image making and film-making. It’s going to change the way we see things. I think, from an idealistic point of view, as artists, image makers, directors or photographers, it is a different medium that can challenge us, that we can explore and try to put a new emotion forward.”

“We are working on the latest VR technology at the moment, creating a one-on-one experience with Björk, where you are physically in a space with her. It isn’t 360 in a traditional VR sense, it’s fully immersive. You can physically move around and interact with her. She is transforming right in front of you, going from a death reality into a life reality. There is a very strong technical base around it. We did all the motion capturing for Björk Digital at The Imaginarium Studios, which is owned by Andy Serkis and where they do all the Hollywood films. It is on such an exponential curve of growth right now. What we are happy with now, we probably won’t be happy with in a year’s time. So we are refining, we are bulletproofing and putting more of the raw human emotion into it for a better capture.”

WDP: “Three years from now it’s gonna go a little bit towards Minority Report, where you will be able to move virtual information, images and stuff around in your space. It will become more holographic. ‘Invisible’ is probably the right word to describe it, in terms of how you interact with it as a user. What will be interesting is physically how it actually evolves and physically how that integrates with the general public.”

Collaborations can be such a strong fuel for new ideas to manifest. You have worked together with Björk for several projects now – why do you think you are drawn to each other?

NTJ: “Our first collaboration with Björk was in 1999. It is a really interesting creative handshake, where you can go on a journey with someone over time and have mutual respect for each other’s craft or being. She always blows us away with some of the things she sees coming or has a vision of.”

WDP: “I think it really comes down to individuality and I think she expresses from the ground up in a very unique, explorative, self-committed sort of way. I think that is why we connect. She invents as opposed to needing to have a mood board of other people’s stuff to make stuff. There is an emotional connection in her work. The problem with the world today is that everyone seeks references and there is very little soul to that, because it is not being born in your mind or in your emotion. Björk has visions and feelings and she sees that through. It’s about courage and conviction, being able to step into the unknown. I think that is what Björk represents in terms of image making, culture and creating.”

A new project of yours, soon to be released, is a box set of artwork. Tell us more.

WDP: “We are about to put out a huge body of artwork that we have been working on for 18 months. Over a hundred new artworks and 22 collaborations. Within the box set there will be individual items of artwork, or two-to three-page foldouts. There is no editorial hierarchy, no structure, no layouts, no typographic considered entity to it, no journalistic aspect. It is all visually based.”

“This project is a self-motivated, self-funded form of pure expressionism. It is about collaboration with no restraints. Where the world is at right now I think everything has an agenda, whereas the only agenda to this project is to collaborate and make great things. We want to remove all the restrictions and, with that freedom, hopefully you go into new realms of being able to make things that are not restricted by fashion directors, creative directors or people with opinions that don’t matter. When people come together under the name of collaboration, everyone is giving and creating from an equal place. There is none of the hierarchy or bullshit that the world exists in today.”

NTJ: “It’s about stripping it back to the basics, to be able to play with different mediums and messing with them a bit. We are not afraid to let the images transmute or for a level of defamiliarisation to happen. Of course there is a level of control – you have to get on the grid to get off the grid.”

WDP: “Like all great projects, you figure them out as you do them. If you’ve got it all figured out from the beginning you don’t really go anywhere. You only create what you imagined in the beginning. This project is about getting to the core of being an artist.”

Credits:

Words by Anna Åhrén

Artwork by Warren Du Preez and Nick Thornton Jones