Enclosed

"Our collaborative work is engaged in an exploration of common space as the foundational relationship between individuals and their surroundings. 

We employ found objects, common, easily available materials, D. I. Y. methods and experimentation as much as intuition. This results in environments that behave according to a certain logic, albeit perhaps an unfamiliar and unexpected one. These situations, which may at first seem ordinary and unimportant, become more curious over time, as we attempt to give their otherness a voice, to allow for deeper, philosophical undertones to surface. 

The space of the Other is, for us, an indiscernible space; it can never be fully measured or fixed, but is open to possibilities, to be (re)symbolized and (re)thought. Sometimes, the Other can take shape as a public space (i.e. library) or a domestic space (i.e. kitchen window), but it can also manifest in objects or materials. Interaction with such spaces - these brief moments that weave the background of everyday existence - forms the basis of our work.

Our process is fundamentally developed through dialogue and exchange, trying to be aware of the ways in which we interact with materials and processes. We often build sets for our videos that integrally integrate found objects into depictions of public space. 

For Enclosed, we wanted to create a whole space from a single (multiple) found object: books. We began the project with the design of the movement of the camera, whose endlessly circulating, bumpy, mechanic movement we hoped would set a conflicting pace for accessing the space. Synchronized across two screens and accompanied by the sounds and hum of a digital scanner, we imagined the effect of this movement could relate to all sorts of human practices of gathering knowledge.

We were originally inspired by the story The Library of Babel, by Jorge Luis Borges, that describes an infinite library, in which every possible book exists. Some books are gibberish, but elsewhere in the library you may find the story of your life and death. One book might be found next to an almost identical book. The inability to decide what is true and what is false, especially in a place that is supposed to provide knowledge, is a captivating idea for us. At once, it questions the authority of the institution and the ability to ever know anything for sure. It underscores the fact that collections like libraries have been amassed in certain ways, according to criteria (perhaps even an agenda). Finally, this idea presents a complicated relationship between what is accessible and what is not.

These spaces, in their rather passive existence, influence our way of thinking and interpreting the world. They are not just completely blank contexts, open and depoliticized, through which one maneuvers, but rather always complex spaces that are not completely accessible or malleable. In the infinite library, like in our video, it is up to the passers-by to linger as long as they want, to focus on details of the unfolding material, to form their own path through the excess of information."

Soft Turns​ in a statement to PLATFORM:VB (October 2013)