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.
Contents
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, 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, 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, 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
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
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
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.
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