In 1999 Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt began to work together and make art under the name ‘Semiconductor’. They use computer animation to explore the world of science, time, scale, and natural forces. They work with different kind of media for their work, ranging from single and multichannel video works, sound, installations, performance and DVD releases. Below you can watch one of their recent work ’20 Hz’(2011).
20 Hz observes a geo-magnetic storm occurring in the Earth’s upper atmosphere. Working with data collected from the CARISMA radio array and interpreted as audio, we hear tweeting and rumbles caused by incoming solar wind, captured at the frequency of 20 Hertz. Generated directly by the sound, tangible and sculptural forms emerge suggestive of scientific visualisations. As different frequencies interact both visually and aurally, complex patterns emerge to create interference phenomena that probe the limits of our perception.
At the moment Jarman and Gerhardt live in Brighton U.K. They completed a fellowship at The NASA Space Sciences Laboratories at UC Berkeley California USA were they made the video ‘Do You Think Science…’ A fragment of the video can be watched below.
By asking a group of space physicists the unanswerable, Semiconductor reveal the hidden motivations driving scientists to the outer limits of human knowledge. In an attempt to find meaning within the question, they open a Pandora’s Box of limitations within science itself, revealing their own philosophical confines. Issues of faith, medicine and the laws of matter are raised to illustrate the infinitely complex universe we live in.
Exhibitions and performances of their work were held in various museum, institutions and festivals worldwide. Among them are Venice Biennale, Hirshhorn Museum Smithsonian Institution Washington DC USA, Nuit Blanche Paris, Institute of Contemporary Arts London, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Prague Contemporary Art Festival, Care of Gallery Milan, EMAF Osnabruck, and Beaconsfield Gallery London. The video below ‘Magnetic Movie’ won a lot of awards and prizes at these various festivals and competitions.
The secret lives of invisible magnetic fields are revealed as chaotic ever-changing geometries. All action takes place around NASA’s Space Sciences Laboratories, UC Berkeley, to recordings of space scientists describing their discoveries. Actual VLF audio recordings control the evolution of the fields as they delve into our inaudible surroundings, revealing recurrent ‘whistlers’ produced by fleeting electrons. Are we observing a series of scientific experiments, the universe in flux, or a documentary of a fictional world?
All videos copyright Semiconductor. copypasteculture
