These are the first videos that we made. We had both just left art college, and would meet up over a period of 18 months. We filmed things without an end result in mind. We were just experimenting with ideas to see what happened. But in that time we began to form a vocabulary and a framework that formed the foundation of our work. Much of that is still in place today; it’s a system of rules and a kind of logic.

In 1993 we made our first video. We were looking at the human figure in relation to the immediate architectural space and how the figure can move in that space and either interacts with another human being or with various objects. We were trying to work out ways of making decisions and what to do with your time. We wanted the videos to be working three-dimensional diagrams, a way of explaining how to do certain actions or to see what would happen if you put a person in various different situations.

Point, line and plane. These are elements of drawing. If you add time to this list you have a type of animation. These were aspects that we were interested in, particularly as we see our videos as a type of drawing.

In 2003 we began to make videos that did not feature the human figure. We concentrated on objects and used them as physical manifestations of point, line and plane. Sometimes it was to animate the architectural space, a way of making drawings three dimensional as in “Blind/Spot.” Or sometimes it was to look at everyday objects and use them in a way that they were not designed for, as in “Notebook.” In this video we were using the table and objects as a space that you could project your imagination onto. The table could be a landscape, a river, a mountain, an accident, a map, or anything for that matter. It was also another way of marking time, and deciding what to do with your time.

We used actual objects to investigate other lo-fi ways of creating moving images, such as “Photocopier” and “Grey Painted Chair.” In the latter the chair becomes a stand in for the human figure and the video explores the idea of weightlessness. We wanted this three-dimensional object to become a two dimensional drawing or painting.

In all these works there is an element of illusion, and for us a fascination, or sense of wonder when attempting to bring something inanimate to life.

Many of our videos contain multiple sections, linked thematically, but often operating as separate vignettes. Up until 2005 all of our videos used a single shot from a locked off static camera. In “The Only Other Point” we used multiple sections but we linked them by an apparent single tracking shot. The event and the camera both moved through space. Architecture has been a consistent aspect in our videos and by moving the camera we felt we could expand this exploration. We could also take actions and processes and capture them with different shots, but link the process seamlessly through camera movement, and in this way create a flow and build momentum.

We also began to look at narrative structure more closely. We attempted to achieve this by linking the filmed activities not only in terms of content but also through the architecture (the set) and the camera movement from one action to another.

We were also looking at narrative devices, or formats; things like the three or five act dramatic structure. In the work “Erdkunde” the format we used was that of a lecture. We could include a wide range of materials and seemingly disparate elements and make some kind of unified sense out of them. If nothing else, there is a beginning, middle and end.

We have always watched films. They have been a huge influence on us, and we will watch anything. We have watched some of the worst films in the world. At first we used to work all day in the studio and then stay up half the night watching film after film. We need more sleep now.

In “DIYVBIED” we took a classic film moment: the car explosion, and put it in a mundane environment and exploded fifty vehicles. In effect we took a very dramatic moment and removed the drama, similar to the immunity we build up to seeing such events in the news.

“100 Falls” is also a video about repetition. We were interested in the idea of suspension of disbelief. The artifice in “100 Falls” is very obvious but we hoped that the viewer would almost lose focus when watching the seemingly endless falls and at moments see it as a real human being falling, whilst at the same time knowing that it was not.

“Car/Lake” is partly a homage to certain American films, a classic scene, dumping the car in a lake, disposing of the evidence. Even though the viewer almost certainly knows what is going to happen there is a certain satisfaction in seeing the resolution of the event. We wanted to make a really boring video, and make it look like a painting.