Semiconductor is UK artist duo Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt. They have been working together for over fifteen years producing moving image works which explore the material nature of our world, how we experience it and how we try to make an understanding of it, questioning our place in the physical universe. Their unique approach has won them many awards and prestigious fellowships, most recently the 'Samsung Art + Prize UK' 2012 for new media, the 'Golden Gate Award for New Visions' at San Francisco International Film Festival USA 2012, 'Art and Science Award' at Ann Arbor Film Festival USA 2012 and the ‘Best Short Film Award’ at the International Festival of Science and Cinema, Marseille, 2013.
Semiconductor make distinctive and innovative works which push the boundaries of moving image as a visual language. Always looking to extend mans experience of the natural physical world, their works delve into unseen worlds and create visual interpretations of these through self developed technical processes and unique aesthetics. Their works transcend the tools that have been used to make them, instead creating new forms of expression that defy genre and provide new experiences for audiences.
In recent years works have developed from fellowship opportunities which have taken them into unique science laboratories to observe how man creates an understanding of the material world around us, these include; NASA Space Sciences Laboratory UC Berkeley California 2005, Mineral Sciences Laboratory, Smithsonian Museum of Natural History 2010 and the Charles Darwin Research Station, Galapagos 2010.
Recent works include; Catching the Light, a moving image installation which uses space telescope data to explore how technology frames our experiences of the natural world, Cosmos, a site specific two metre spherical wooden sculpture that has been formed from scientific data made tangible and Data Projector, a moving image installation which considers scientific data as a representation of nature.
HD limited editions of Magnetic Movie and Brilliant Noise are part of the permanent collections of Hirshhorn Museum Washington DC, USA and the Pompidou Centre, Paris, France. Their work has been exhibited and screened globally including The Royal Academy London, Hirshhorn Museum Washington DC, Venice Biennale Italy, FACT Liverpool , CAC Cincinnati USA, Sundance Film Festival and Rotterdam International Film Festival.
