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DANIEL KELLER: So we made a list of demands.
NIK KOSMAS: There's supposed to be demands in this
hysterical voice, but then also things that you're like,
but that's actually kind of reasonable.
DANIEL KELLER: Very moderate, reasonable demands.
NIK KOSMAS: Just like slightly cheaper SMS messaging.
DANIEL KELLER: On one hand, we see all these new technologies
and the promise of transcendence, but then
there's such a big chance that all of civilization is going
to be destroyed, or at least like--
NIK KOSMAS: Or it feels like there's a chance towards it.
In the end, probably nothing happens, cool or bad.
We met in school in Chicago.
DANIEL KELLER: It was a really weird story, actually.
Our professor there, he pulled me aside and he just kind of
randomly described his working process and my working
process-- but we had never worked together--
but as kind of being the opposite.
It was sort of him being kind of brash, I guess, and me
being overly cautious.
Yeah, it forces you to be able to communicate your ideas.
And you can't hide behind the, oh, I like it.
It's me.
So, yeah again, it allows us to move beyond our individual
egos and decide what is best for the piece.
It was really kind of eerie how it was predicted by this
professor of ours.
NIK KOSMAS: That's true.
When I meet people and they say, oh, I really like
AIDS-3D, sometimes it's as if it's a separate thing.
And I actually don't feel like they're talking to me at all.
And I can comfortably be like, oh that's cool.
I'm glad you like AIDS-3D.
Like that thing out there, and it doesn't affect Nik Kosmas.
So this is our office where we do a lot of deep thinking.
It's under construction, though, because we're
expanding it.
We're going to make it bigger.
Actually, I would say most of the time when I hear other
people talking about our work, they seem to get it, because
we really put a lot of work in making things packaged and
understandable.
And so with the "OMG Obelisk" at the New Museum, we have
this really simple message in this really simple form, and
then they combine together and you can't really miss it.
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NIK KOSMAS: It was also a good example of an early strategy
for us, which was to make things that looked good in
photos and looked good translated to the internet at
a much smaller resolution, and then something that basically
didn't exist in real life.
Because I mean, it was made out of Styrofoam and--
knock it over like that.
And actually--
DANIEL KELLER: Yeah.
NIK KOSMAS: --the New Museum rebuilt it.
And it was cool.
They rebuilt exactly as we asked, kind of.
But we didn't really know what to ask for because we didn't
want to ask for something that was as terrible, physically,
as it was before.
So it was kind of a weird purgatory
for the thing, actually.
And it's not offensive, but it's just loud.
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DANIEL KELLER: My mother--
as a part-time job, she's a branding consultant.
And so she has this software--
I don't actually know what it's called exactly.
But it's some sort of database amalgamation kind of thing.
And, well, we kind of wanted to make a name that described
our interest in technology and then also this social
activism, political element.
And that was just sort of what the computer came up with.
And we liked it because it was, well, potentially
offensive, but also AIDS has this double meaning
where it could be--
NIK KOSMAS: Help.
DANIEL KELLER: --help, yeah.
And so we definitely want to make controversy if it means
discussion.
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NIK KOSMAS: With the "World Community Grid Water Features"
series, we started out with this idea of putting computers
inside of sculptures as a way to justify them, basically--
as some way of feeling that art doesn't do anything, in a
really concrete sense, compared to science and
technology.
So to take your useless art object and then your extremely
useful and also very dense, efficient computer--
you can just kind of slip a computer into a sculpture.
There's lots of space.
We had that idea as a kind of overall thing.
And then it took us a long time of, OK, what
if it was this form?
What if it was that form?
Like maybe six months of just doodling and talking and then
finally we just-- oh OK, that ready-made
fountain from the internet.
Ordered, computer, finished.
The social activism thing came in the beginning when we were
looking for content, kind of.
We were just basically doing performances.
And we were doing these dance performances, and we were
taking Wikipedia articles on global warming or protein
folding and then just spectacularizing them.
And it was kind of like social activism that you don't quite
exactly know of-- you're like, is it serious?
DANIEL KELLER: It's sort of like, how do you deal with
these big issues when art is totally useless other than
maybe to communicate?
But even then, it's like you don't want to be didactic.
NIK KOSMAS: And who are you communicating to, anyways?
Because who actually follows art?
It's a very small little niche--
DANIEL KELLER: Super marginal--
NIK KOSMAS: --if you want it, yeah.
DANIEL KELLER: --thing.
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DANIEL KELLER: And right now, I mean, the art market hasn't
fully collapsed yet, but I don't really expect it--
NIK KOSMAS: It doesn't make sense that it can exist.
DANIEL KELLER: No.
It's an irrational market.
It's a big bubble, just like housing or anything else.
I mean, it's even more irrational because there's
absolutely no objective standard
of quality or anything.
And so, I mean, we're aware of that.
I don't know.
One thing that definitely is going to happen is a widening
gap between the rich elite and the poor people.
NIK KOSMAS: And it's even like a biological gap, too.
Like you have these people like the Silicon Valley-- like
people who are really into supplements and get genetic
modification.
And they're going to turn into, basically, post-humans.
That's not going to take very long.
They're going to have thought control things.
And kind of--
yeah, trans-humans and cyber people.
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DANIEL KELLER: Yeah, we're definitely not into this die
young kind of thing.
I think that's really old fashioned and this romantic--
NIK KOSMAS: And not like that tortured artist--
DANIEL KELLER: --die at 27.
NIK KOSMAS: --that needs to get it out so bad.
I mean, we--
DANIEL KELLER: I just think that's--
NIK KOSMAS: --enjoy spreading ideas.
DANIEL KELLER: --an entire cliche, for sure.
NIK KOSMAS: Yeah, that's boring.
DANIEL KELLER: I don't know that our generation is, I
hope, moving away from this kind of--
NIK KOSMAS: --rock-and-roll, bad attitude kind of thing?
DANIEL KELLER: Yeah, I just really think
that's really passe.
I don't know.
NIK KOSMAS: It's also like saying, fuck you.
It's just like, don't you have more creative things to say?
Like--
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