Soulbath.com “was created using six different tones of grey. The usage of such simple colors generated a calming and minimalist effect on the viewer. This feel was also exhibited through the linear progression of the various pages of the website. It was designed with negligible amounts of ASCII graphics, and almost completely by Flash, which created the bridge between the three-dimensional and the two-dimensional worlds.” [1]

360: Your big career break was much due to the success of the site soulbath.com. Out of all the features you received (e.g. The New York Times), what were the main details written in praise about the uniqueness of this project?

Hi-ReS!: To be honest, it’s so far back, I don’t really remember most of it. We (Alexandra and myself) were creating the site from our flat at the time, we had just moved to London and no idea about the web at all. It was such an exciting time for us, because we were not at all familiar with online publishing. Meaning not only the technical implications but also what can happen when you broadcast something 24/7 across the globe. We hadn’t even finished the website when the first few sites started picking up on it, it was just our own online test to see if things were working. I remember vividly coming back to the flat from a day out, checking my email and suddenly seeing 7/8 emails commenting on the site from people we didn’t know. It was amazing and so exciting. Then the press started picking up on it, especially once we did the banner exhibition clickhere!

I guess at the time it struck a chord with what was happening to online advertising and everyone jumped on it. Quite scary, but impressive. Obviously from there, things just started happening, and it was very ironic to see advertising agencies approaching us for work, quoting how they loved the banner exhibition…

360: Please complete the sentences to how they relate to you:

a) A client asked us for a website task that was intimidating at first, because…
we had no idea how to make a website. Yeah – DJ Vadim’s website was the first real site we did, even before soulbath. Ninjatune asked us if we could do it and we said yes, without the slightest clue about anything.

b) They promised, but ended up not paying for our web services. The company was…
I can’t tell. I never would, but it wasn’t that bad, because we jumped ship when the cheque they kept promising us for the upfront payment never surfaced. We really have been very lucky so far. But we can be a real pain when people don’t pay us on time, so I guess most of the time they’d rather pay us than deal with another phone call from us. Haha.

c) Our best project to date was…
Hmm, see — I cannot really answer that question. I love every project we have done and each one for different reasons. When you start asking people in the studio, it gets even more confusing. We don’t seem to agree on one particular project ever… I think I was the most happy doing our early projects. Everything was so fresh and new to us, we were able to make mistakes, we got away with more and it was pretty much one project at a time, whereas now it’s much more about delegating several things at the same time. We have done a few book projects for MTV and PlayStation recently which I was very happy with — mostly because it felt really exciting again and allowed us to learn and develop.

d) We are happy people, when…
we don’t have to worry about deadlines and have no meetings or conference calls lined up.

A combination of illustrations and photographs were used into the creation of Diesel Stylelab’s site.

360: You both come from different artistic backgrounds (fine art, product design, commercials and music video making); you combine well your interests in each web project. What led you to pursuing web design, and why have you used Flash mainly to represent your ideas?

Hi-ReS!: I think when we first came to London, we came here to live as artists, making music, film and graphic design our focus. We weren’t interested in the web and webdesign at all. It was maybe the fact that we moved to Shoreditch (East London) where at the time most of the webdesign scene was located and the people we got to know mostly seemed to be involved in the web. Not sure… we just eventually saw Flash and realised that the interface seemed very familiar, but the technology would enable us to combine all the things we were doing separately in one platform. That’s where the idea of soulbath was born, an audiovisual publication (which sadly never got past issue 1 — but there will be a second one in early 2006). I think from there we went into scripting to a much greater extent and that’s where we really got hooked — trying to tie various bits together to form a new narrative, make it unpredictable and fresh… making connections.

360: In your work, you’ve tried to “bridge the gap between the digital medium and the real world.” [2] Have you ever thought about doing it at personal level of your company, such as involving your team Hi-ReS! into a daily, live broadcast online — either via web cams, or making a documentary, reality-style short film?

Hi-ReS!: Haha, we actually had an idea like that once, a few years ago. It may still happen. I mean, that would probably be the most boring reality show on earth, because apart from the occasional table-football match, we really just stare at screens all day or make print outs, etc. The idea we had was much more glamorous and much more fake. As I think of it, I believe we really should do it soon.

The album cover of “I was Young and needed the Money” by Clifford Gilberto.

Motion graphics from inside “window66” of the Massive Attack site.

360: The Massive Attack site is simply outstanding! It has a surface level which is like a typical site with band info — news and tour dates, and then there is an underneath layer which is intriguing for its interactivity with worldwide statistical data, live news images coming from the web, and more. How long did it take to create the site? And can you explain more about your concept of creation for the theme “100th Window”?

Hi-ReS!: It took quite a long time to get it all done, mainly because we created quite a complex backend system for the site which would allow the band to upload lots of images, sounds, etc., on a daily basis while they were on tour. As far as the concept, 3D’s (Robert del Naja from Massive Attack) idea for the album was based on how your life is becoming less and less private. There are less and less windows you can close, and even if you close 99, there is a 100th window that people can get access to your files... so the site was meant to work in a similar way to that. It was meant to be difficult to reach certain parts of it, the whole sub-layer is completely cryptic and forms it’s own OS in a way, playing with the data you find on the information layer you first see. The mood of the band on any given day would influence certain aspects of the site, as did weather data, etc. The beauty was that it all worked with their live show, i.e. there was a satellite site at 100thwindow.com which would allow you to send messages to concerts, which would then be displayed on the screen during the show.

360: I read in an interview that you are preparing a fashion line for your company called Hi-BoY! and Hi-GirL!. When will it be launched? What will be different about your product line?

Hi-ReS!: Oh, it’s something we have been planning for a long time now. Who knows when it will happen. We are full of hope to launch this year, but the standards we have set ourselves are high. I mean, we don’t just want to put out another T-shirt with some design on the front — what’s the point really? So all of the stuff we have designed so far is much more couture, much more about material and cut. Which makes it difficult to produce, especially since many of the designs are done by hand, meaning each item is slightly different from the next. Basically, we want to do it right and take it seriously, not just try to cash in on a name.

360: You have been invited to present at events such as FlashintheCan in Toronto, Canada, and OFFF04 in Valencia, Spain. What is your usual process for preparing a session (i.e. the time is takes, the topics you choose; do you create exclusive artwork for the show?)?

Hi-ReS!: We do a different presentation at each conference and take into account what the conference is about, i.e. the recent OFFF04 was titled “I am not a digital artist, I am a___________”, which provoked us to take a look at what we are. And we came up with quite a few different answers. The way we generally approach these presentations is to look at who will be there, and what they might be interested in. We like to show lots of stuff people have not seen and explain the process, inspiration and creation of projects people may know already. And we like to keep it quite entertaining and open — just a look into the way we work and think, and hopefully that will inspire people to some extent.

360: By any chance, do you get nervous on stage? If yes, do you have any personal techniques to keep calmer?

Hi-ReS!: I never get nervous. I actually really enjoy public speaking and public performances. I used to be ultra nervous when I first started touring my album in 1998. Eventually, I started thinking that there really is no way around it. I had to perform my music in order to get people to hear it, so I might as well enjoy being on stage. After all, this is the greatest thing you could imagine. You are on stage and people have come to see you perform your own work. You should be thankful and joyous, not afraid and intimidated.
It sound like a really simple approach, but it worked for me!

360: There is contrast line to your daily work in front of a computer, and then being on a stage presenting to an audience, as well as meeting other creative individuals as you travel the world to each event. Is the latter really the bonus prize to working so hard and being successful?

Hi-ReS!: To some extent, yes. It’s really refreshing to meet others working in your field and put a face to the work, exchange views and ideas. It’s the one thing that’s missing from he web and going to conferences is the perfect remedy. But it’s not quite a jet-set life, as much as I want to believe it. Every conference is hard work and we do take our speaking engagements very seriously. I think this year, we are going to cut down seriously on the amount of events we appear at… Time to take a bit of a break.

360: It seems like you have been interviewed so many times, that you are constantly being asked similar questions about your portfolio work. So, I thought to make this more interesting, I would like for you to suggest 3 questions about things people don’t regularly ask, and that you consider revealing about yourselves or work. Please answer those questions of course (smile).

Hi-ReS!: To be honest, you have been pretty good. I guess a lot of our interviews still focus on work we have done years ago and I understand that new work takes time to filter through people’s consciousness. I love talking about soulbath, because it takes me back to the time when we created it and it reminds of why we started all of this.

Anyway, here are the 3 questions:

Q1. Where do you find most of your inspiration, when do ideas come to you?

Usually on my way to meetings or in meetings. I seem to work really well under pressure. I am hopeless when I sit down and “try to have an idea”… it’s really when I least expect it, in the shower, just before I fall asleep, completely random.
I hardly ever find inspiration on other websites.
Lovely how the brain works.

Q2. What’s your favourite smell?

Sun and sea-salt on skin.

Q3. Who would you most like to work with?

In no particular order: Bill Viola, Paul Pfeiffer, Douglas Coupland, Helmut Lang, Rei Kawakubo, Terry Richardson, Bret Easton Ellis, Greg Egan, Darren Aronofsky (again), Tom Sachs, Death From Above 1979