Semiconductor (also Semiconductor Films) is UK artist duo Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt. They have been working together for over twenty years producing visually and intellectually engaging moving image works which explore the material nature of our world and how we experience it through the lens of science and technology, questioning how these devices mediate our experiences. Their unique approach has won them many awards, commissions and prestigious fellowships including; SónarPLANTA 2016 commission, Collide @ CERN Ars Electronica Award 2015, Jerwood Open Forest 2015 and Samsung Art + Prize 2012. Exhibitions and screenings include; The Universe and Art, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan, 2016; Infosphere, ZKM, Karlsruhe, 2016; Quantum of Disorder, Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich, 2015; Da Vinci: Shaping the Future, ArtScience Museum, Singapore, 2014; Let There Be Light, House of Electronic Arts, Basel 2013 (solo show); Field Conditions, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2012; International Film Festival Rotterdam, 2012; New York Film Festival: Views from the Avant Garde, 2012; European Media Art Festival, 2012; Worlds in the Making, FACT, Liverpool 2011 (solo show); Earth; Art of a Changing World, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2009 and Sundance Film Festival, 2009.

History

Ruth Jarman (b. 1973) and Joe Gerhardt (b. 1972) started making art as Semiconductor in 1997. Their art uses computer animation to explore science, time, scale, and natural forces. They work in different media ranging from single and multichannel video works, sound, installations, performance and DVD releases. They are currently based in Brighton U.K. They have completed a number of fellowships and residencies at CERN, Geneva, Switzerland; The Smithsonian Institution at The National Museum of Natural History, Washington DC, USA; Gulbenkian Galapagos Artists Residency; Exploratorium, San Francisco, USA; The NASA Space Sciences Laboratories UC Berkeley California USA; Berwick Gymnasium Fellowship Berwick-Upon-Tweed UK and Couvent des Récollets Paris. They have performed and exhibited at

Biennale of Sydney The Biennale of Sydney is an international festival of contemporary art, held every two years in Sydney, Australia. It is a large and well-attended contemporary visual arts event in the country. Alongside the Venice and São Paulo biennales and ...

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

Hirshhorn Museum The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall, in Washington, D.C., the United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was des ...

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

Washington DC USA,

Nuit Blanche Nuit Blanche () (White Night) is an annual all-night or night-time arts festival of a city. A Nuit Blanche typically has museums, private and public art galleries, and other cultural institutions open and free of charge, with the centre of the ...

Paris,

Institute of Contemporary Arts The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. Located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch, the ICA c ...

London,

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was ...

, Prague Contemporary Art Festival, Careof Gallery Milan, EMAF Osnabruck, and Beaconsfield Gallery London.

Commissions, awards, collections

* 4th Audemars Piguet Commission at Art Basel, 2018 * Sorigué purchase of Earthworks for their collection, 2016 * Sónar Planta commission, Barcelona, Spain, 2016 * Quantum Shorts Prize, Scientific American and Centre for Quantum Technologies, National University of Singapore, 2015 * ACE Lottery Funding to produce ''Where Shapes Come From'', 2015 *

Pump House Gallery Pump House Gallery is an art gallery in Battersea Park, London. It is both located in and owned and managed by the London Borough of Wandsworth. It is a former pump house for the adjacent boating lake, and is the only Grade II listed buildi ...

, London, 2015 * Shortlisted for the Forest of Dean Sculpture Trail, 2015 * ArtScience Museum, Singapore, 2014 * Jerwood Open Forest Commission, UK, 2014 * Chichester Festival Theatre, UK. Site specific moving image commission, 2014 * Swarovski commission, 2013. * Samsung Art + Prize 2012. * ‘Art and Science Award’ at Ann Arbor Film Festival 2012. * ‘Golden Gate Award for New Visions’ at San Francisco International Film Festival 2012. * Prix Ars Electronica, Honorary Mention 2011. * Exploratorium, San Francisco USA 2010-ongoing * Gulbenkian Galapagos Artist Fellowship 2010 * Smithsonian Artists Research Fellowship 2010 * Awarded the Nature Scientific Merit award for Magnetic Movie at Imagine Science Film Festival, New York 2009. * ''Magnetic Movie'' was purchased by the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington for the permanent collection 2008. * Special Mention and Best International Experimental Short for ''Magnetic Movie'' at Leeds International Film Festival 2008. * Best Film for ''Magnetic Movie'' at Cutting Edge at the British Animation Awards 2008. * Second prize by the Science Film Festival for ''Brilliant Noise'', a Coruna Spain, 2008. * Best Experimental Film for ''Magnetic Movie'' at Tirana International Film Festival 2007. * Second prize at Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival for ''Brilliant Noise'', 2006. * Best Video for ''Brilliant Noise'' at Experimental Film and Video Festival, Seoul, Korea 2006.

Selected solo exhibitions

*2019 ''The Technological Sublime'', City Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand *2018 ''Halo'', The 4th Audemars Piguet Commission at Art Basel, Switzerland *2018 ''The View from Nowhere'', Le Lieu Unique, Nantes, France *2017 ''Parting the Waves'', Axiom Art and Science Gallery, Tokyo, Japan *2017 ''Where Shapes Come From'', Phoenix, Leicester, UK *2016 ''Earthworks'', Sonar Planta, Sonar Festival, Barcelona *2014 ''Cosmos'', Jerwood Open Forest, Alice Holt Forest, UK *2013 ''Let There Be Light'', House of Electronic Arts, Basel, Switzerland *2011 ''Worlds in the Making'', FACT, Liverpool, UK *2011 ''Solar Systems'', Phoenix Brighton, UK *2011 ''Semiconductor'', Nuit Blanche, Paris, France *2010 ''Semiconductor'', Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia *2010 ''Heliocentric'', Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland, UK *2009 ''Magnetic Movie'', Exploratorium, San Francisco, USA *2008 ''Magnetic Movie'', Hirshhorn Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, USA

Selected group exhibitions

*2019 ''Ecovisionaries'', LABoral, Gijon, Spain *2019 ''Quantica: In Search of the Invisible'', CCCB, Barcelona, Spain *2018 ''Superposition: Equilibrium and Engagement'', 21st Biennale of Sydney, Australia *2018 ''Broken Symmetries'', Fact, Liverpool, UK *2018 ''Nature as Data'', Jing-an International Sculpture Park, Shanghai, China *2018 ''Groundwork'', CAST, Cornwall, UK *2017 ''Infosphere'', Centro National de las Artes (CENART), Mexico City, Mexico *2017 ''The Universe and Art'', ArtScience Museum, Singapore *2017 ''No Such Thing as Gravity'', National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan *2016 ''Nonspaces'', Akbank Sanat, Istanbul, Turkey *2016 ''The Universe and Art'', Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan *2016 ''Seeing Round Corners'', Turner Contemporary, Margate, UK *2016 ''The Thinking Machine'', Ramon Llull and the Ars combinatorial, CCCB, Barcelona, Spain *2016 ''Project Daejon: Cosmos'', Daejon Museum of Art, South Korea *2016 ''Extra Fantôme'', La Gaîté Lyrique, Paris, France *2015 ''Infosphere'', ZKM, Museum of Contemporary Art, Karlsruhe, Germany *2015 ''Three Branches of the Same Tree'', Pump House Gallery, London *2015 ''Animated Wonderworlds'', Museum of Design, Zurich *2014 ''Da Vinci: Shaping the Future'', ArtScience Museum, Singapore *2014 Jerwood Open Forest, Jerwood Space, London *2014 ''Vertigo'', SIM Gallery, Curitiba, Brazil *2013 ''Galápagos'', CAM, Lisbon *2013 ''Radical Fictions'', 4th Exhibition of Digital Art, Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo, Brazil *2013 ''Space Odyssey 2.0'', Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Hasselt, Belgium *2013 ''The Dark Universe'',

Sonic Acts Sonic Acts is an organisation for the research, development and production of works at the intersection of art, science and theory. It also commissions and co-produces new works, often in collaboration with international festivals, arts organisati ...

Festival, New Arts Space, Amsterdam *2012 ''Field Conditions'', San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, USA *2012 ''Digital Crystal: Swarovski at the Design Museum'', Design Museum, London *2012 ''Is this Thing On?'', Contemporary Art Center (CAC), Cincinnati, Ohio, USA *2012 ''Visualizing Sound'', Laboral, Gijon, Spain *2012 ''Galapagos'', The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, UK *2011 ''Watch Me Move'', Barbican, London, UK *2011 ''Wild Sky'', Edith Russ Haus Fur Media Kunst, Oldenburg, Germany *2011 ''Invisible Fields'', Arts Santa Monica, Barcelona *2011 ''Star Voyager: Exploring Space on Screen'', Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne, Australia *2011 ''L'Objet Photographique, une Invention Permanente'', Maison Europeenne de la Photographie, Paris, France *2010 ''Black Rain'', RIXC Gallery, Riga, Latvia *2010 ''Into the Great Wide Open'', Vlieland, Netherlands. *2009 ''Earth: Art of a changing world'', Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK

Selected group screenings

*2017 The 24th Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film *2017 Rotterdam International Film Festival *2016 Hamburg International Short Film Festival, Germany *2015 Beyond the Single Screen, Tate Britain, London. (Semiconductor in conversation) *2014 Assembly: A Survey of Recent Artists’ Film and Video in Britain 2008–2013. Tate Britain, UK *2014 Carroll/ Fletcher On Screen in association with Animate Projects, UK *2013 Ann Arbor Film Festival, USA *2013 7th Recontres Internationales Sciences et Cinemas, Marseille, France *2013 London International Animation Festival, London, UK *2012 41st International Film Festival Rotterdam, Netherlands *2012 Animafest, Zagreb *2012 Curtas Vila Do Conde, Portugal *2012 Ottawa International Animation Festival, Canada *2012 New York Film Festival: Views from the Avant Garde, New York, USA *2012 Melbourne International Animation Festival, Australia *2012 European Media Art Festival, Osnabrueck, Germany *2012 San Francisco International Film Festival, USA *2011 11th Seoul International New Media Festival, Korea *2010 27th Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival, Germany *2010 Venice Film Festival (Orizzonti section), Venice, Italy *2009 Sundance Film Festival, USA *2009 13th Media Art Biennale WRO 09, Wroclaw Poland *2009 Cannes Film Festival, British Council *2009 31st Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival, France *2008 Edinburgh Film Festival, Edinburgh, Scotland *2008 Los Angeles Film Festival, Los Angeles, USA *2008 Annecy International Animated Film Festival, Annecy, France *2008 British Animation Awards, London (Awarded Best Film at the Cutting Edge)

Filmography/Works

# ''Retropolis'', 1999. # ''A-Z of Noise'', 1999. # ''Yes You Are Right!'', 1999. # ''Puffed Rice'', 2000. # ''DAT Politics, music by DAT Politics'', 2000. # ''Earthquake Films'', 2000. # ''New Antics'', 2000. # ''Whipaspank'', music promo for Cristian Vogel, 2000. # ''QT'', music promo for qqq, 2001. # ''Linear'', 2001. # ''Domestic EMI'', 2002. # ''Green Grass of Tunnel'', music promo for Múm, 2002. # ''Strata'', 2002. # ''Inaudible Cities: Part One'', 2002. # ''Digital Anthrax'', 2002. # ''Machi'', music by Aco, 2003. # ''Mini-Epoch-Series'', 2003. # ''The Sound of Microclimates'', 2004. # "Sonic Inc." Live performance software, 2004. # ''All the Time in the World'', 2005. # ''200 Nanowebbers'', music by Double Adaptor, 2005. # ''Ways of Making Sense'', 2006. # ''Do You Think Science...'', 2006. # ''Brilliant Noise'', 2006. # ''Earthmoves'', 2006. # ''Time Out of Place'', 2007. # ''Magnetic Movie'', 2007. # ''Matter in Motion'', 2008. # ''Out of the Light'', 2008. # ''Black Rain'', 2009. # ''Heliocentric'', 2009. # ''Indefatigable'', 2010. # ''Crystallised'', 2011. # ''Inferno Observatory'', 2011. # ''Worlds in the Making'', 2011. # ''20 Hz'', 2011. # ''The Shaping Grows'', 2012. # ''Subterranean (Seismic Blues)'', 2012 # ''Some Part of Us Will Have Become'',semiconductorfilms.com
"Some Part of Us Will Have Become" 2012. # ''Data Projector'', 2013. # ''Play of Light'', 2014. # ''Cosmos'', public sculpture, 2014. # ''Catching the Light'', 2014. # ''Band 9'', 2015. # ''Earthworks'', 2016. # ''Where Shapes Come From'', 2016.

Other works

# ''Sonic Inc.'', Live Performance. # ''Hi-Fi Rise – Sonic Cities from another Timeline'', 2001 DVD self-released # ''Worlds in Flux'', 2007 DVD

Fat Cat records FatCat Records is an English independent record label based in Brighton. The label's output reaches into many styles including experimental rock, electronica, psychedelic folk, contemporary classical, noise and post-punk. Notable artists that ...

References

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External links

* http://www.semiconductorfilms.com/ * https://lux.org.uk/artist/semiconductor * http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/filmnetwork/U7161980 * http://eternalgaze.net/2006/06/200-nanowebbers-semi-conducted/ * http://www.designcinema2008.org/index.php?view=article&id=124%3Akeynoters&tmpl=component&print=1&page=&option=com_content&Itemid=735 * http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20080906055528/tate.org.uk/britain/eventseducation/lateattatebritain/lateattatebritainaugust2008.htm Computer animation British artist groups and collectives