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Semiconductor

Ruth Jarman, British, b. 1973, and Joe Gerhardt, British, b. 1972

BiographySemiconductor, an artistic collaboration formed in 1997 by Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt, creates moving image works engaging science to question the place of humanity in the universe. They created the video Black Rain (2009) by cutting together footage taken from NASA cameras that are rotating around the sun along the same orbital path as the earth. The imagery used is appropriated from the twin satellite solar mission STEREO, which tracks space for solar winds that might be heading toward Earth. NASA ordinarily processes captured imagery before distributing it to the public, but here it is shown raw, with numerous digital artifacts that remind us of the ways technology mediates our experience of outer space. Black Rain was commissioned by the animation festival Animasivo in Mexico City in 2009.

Semiconductor’s work has been exhibited, screened, and performed internationally, including at the Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival, Germany (2010, 2008, 2007); Sundance Film Festival, Park City, Utah (2009); the Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (2009); the Smithsonian Institution’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. (2008); the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, United Kingdom (2003); and the Venice Bienniale, Italy (2003). Fellowships and residencies include the Smithsonian Artists Research Fellowship (2010); Gulbenkian Galapagos Artists’ Residency (2010); Art and Space Science Fellowship, Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California Berkeley (Fall/Winter 2005); and Couvent des Récollets Residency, Paris, France (2004). Jarman and Gerhardt are based in Brighton, United Kingdom.