Summary

Visionaries is a Roku Original docuseries that explores human creativity and engineering.

ARCH Motorcycle co-founders Keanu Reeves and Gard Hollinger embark on a quest for inspiration, sharing wonders and insights globally in their docuseries.

In this interview, Collider’s Steve Weintraub speaks with Reeves and Hollinger about the large art installation Roden Crater, ARCH’s plans for the future, and what they learned on the road.

Keanu Reeves and ARCH Motorcycle co-founder Gard Hollinger are taking the idea of creation and racing with it. In their new Roku Original docuseries, Visionaries, the partners hit the road to speak with individuals at the forefront of change through engineering and ingenuity.
With a spotlight on their passion for motorcycle design and how their company is changing the game, Visionaries takes us all over with this inquisitive duo, making stops at remarkable hubs of innovation all along the way. As much as the series brings viewers awareness of exciting advancements in the works, it also begs the question, where does human creativity come from? On their quest for inspiration, Reeves and Hollinger share global wonders in this brand-new series.
Check out their interview with Collider’s Steve Weintraub to find out which of their stops was out of this world, their favorite motorcycle designs, and their thoughts on AI as a tool. The duo also share the insights they learned on the road and how artists like James Turrell expanded their horizons. You can watch the full conversation in the video above, or you can read the transcript below.
‘Visionaries’ Takes Us to “Mind-Expanding, Jaw-Dropping” Places

In Episode 6, we get to visit James Turrell’s Roden Crater.

COLLIDER: For both of you, what was cooler, getting an ARCH motorcycle in cyberpunk or getting to visit the Roden Crater?
KEANU REEVES: Aah! Roden Crater.
GARD HOLLINGER: Yeah, Roden Crater was pretty amazing.
REEVES: But I mean, cyberpunk ARCH Nazaré? Pretty darn cool.
Roden Crater, which is Episode 6 of your series, I was blown away by that episode. I didn’t really know much about the crater, and what James [Turrell] has done is just inspiring and jaw-dropping. What was it actually like for the two of you visiting that for the first time? Because even just watching it on the screener, I was really blown away.
REEVES: Just mind-expanding, jaw-dropping. What an incredible experience.
HOLLINGER: The enormity of it, the ambition of it is impressive, and it’s not done. He’s still working on it.
It’s so incredible. I’m truly blown away by the art and what he’s done. I’m just inspired.
HOLLINGER: Great, great.
Do you have a favorite motorcycle to ride, and do you have a favorite motorcycle design?
HOLLINGER: An ARCH motorcycle. The 1s.
REEVES: You like the 1s? I like the KRGT-1. That’s a Ford control. He likes it a little sportier. In terms of design, when I was a kid, the Norton Commando—the upswept pipe, the shape of it—was inspiring.
HOLLINGER: My list is too long. [Laughs]
REEVES: Talk about one of the bikes you raced in. Which dirt bike was the choice?
HOLLINGER: The 1983. Maico 490 Spider.
REEVES: There you go!
ARCH Has Been a “Huge Endeavor” Since 2011

Image via Roku

With ARCH, you guys started the company in 2011. How much each year are you looking at a five-year plan or a 10-year plan, and how much are you looking at it year by year? You get to be sort of nimble because it’s not such a huge company.
REEVES: [Laughs] Not a huge company. It is not a huge company.
HOLLINGER: No, but it’s a huge endeavor.
REEVES: It’s a huge endeavor, and we have a day, week, month, year…
HOLLINGER: Life.
REEVES: Life over the whole thing.
HOLLINGER: But you have to definitely pick realistic time spans to focus on each phase of it. But we’re looking pretty far down the road.
Technology changes all the time, and so I’m curious, what technology or engineering are you thinking about in terms of how technology will help you guys in the designing of bikes? With AI, are you even looking at stuff like that?
HOLLINGER: It’s there, and I know it’s being used in design. My personal experience has been that it’s maybe not quite there yet. Then there’s a whole philosophical thing, which is another topic.
REEVES: Yeah. But I mean, I could see how design iterations, like, “Put together a Ducati with a BMW,” and get pictures of a bike that looks like a thing. I mean, it’s AI adjacent with some of the mapping that’s going on, but it’s not inserting itself.
HOLLINGER: No, not yet.
REEVES: Maybe mapping.
HOLLINGER: Or it’s so far behind the scene in front of you that maybe they’re doing something.

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Another episode that you guys shine a light on is the 3D printing, [Relativity Space], and the way that they are using 3D printing and invented a 3D printer to print a rocket ship, which is, again, jaw-dropping. It made me also think about the other applications as you enlarge these 3D printers and as you advance the technology, how it could possibly be used on motorcycles and other things. My question is, is 3D printing a motorcycle engine possible, or do you think it’s never going to be possible?
HOLLINGER: It’s absolutely possible. At the moment, it’s just not a cost-effective process for large-volume manufacturing, but it’s certainly possible. It gets used in many genres of especially motorcycle racing, car racing, this type of thing.
Working on ‘Visionaries’ Expanded Their Horizons

“Don’t limit your thought.”

Image via Roku

You guys got to meet all these cool artists and be inspired. What did you take away from all the people that you met that perhaps influenced what you’re doing at ARCH or actually just influenced your own life meeting these people and experiencing these things?
REEVES: I would say my horizon was made even broader.
HOLLINGER: Yeah, which is lovely.
REEVES: Which is lovely. Just don’t limit your thought. Don’t limit what your horizon is—potential and possibility.
James Turrell is the person who created the Roden Crater. He’s a brilliant artist. What is it like when you are leaving a place like that, like your mental state? Because one of the things the series talks about is where creativity comes from, and I’m just wondering if that is the kind of thing that impacted both of you.
HOLLINGER: I personally found it stimulating and, at the same time, a little sad to have to leave. I had the wish to be able to spend more time with him and there, but it was incredibly inspiring.
REEVES: The work is a kind of celebration of the individual and the cosmos and the celestial bodies that we don’t oftentimes really appreciate. And I think to that appreciation comes a specialness to actually being alive.
One of the things about what he’s done is the art installations look like they’re on another planet at times. I’m wondering, Keanu, did you even bring up with him like, “I make movies. Can we film something here?”
REEVES: Yeah, it was called, “Can we do a TV show and interview you? Because this is friggin awesome.” [Laughs] And hopefully, it’ll be inspiring to others. A lot of what he’s doing is classical geometry, and it’s cool to see in a way that I think there’s sometimes a prejudice about the validity of the present, sometimes what’s come before, very broadly speaking. But just what is a circle and what is a triangle and what are these different shapes and what do they do? The complexity of that.
HOLLINGER: The concept of time, the concept of time and space.

Image via Roku

I also found it interesting what he was talking about, how light is a different thing, and then when people look at it, light becomes another color. The way he was talking was above my head. Did you understand all that stuff that he was saying?
HOLLINGER: He probably did.
REEVES: Absolutely not. I’m looking to see about a verification of how light is affected by the observer. I innately believe that. I mean, we speak about so many things and about things being changed by just being witnessed, and it seems like that is born out of nature itself. I think it’s akin to when you’re driving in a car and, for some reason, you look over, and someone’s looking at you, and it’s really not in your field of sight, or you think of someone, and something happens. There’s an interconnectivity that I think is beyond what we appreciate, as what we might call magic now or something that’s “woo-woo.” I think we’re discovering all the time how nature is more mysterious and more profound.
Keanu, when did you come up with “yummy” being the thing that gets you, when you’re like, “This is yummy?”
REEVES: I don’t know where it came from, but it felt like something appropriate to the feeling, you know? That’s yummy.
Visionaries will stream exclusively on The Roku Channel beginning March 7.