Ruth Jarman (b. 1973, Fareham) and Joe Gerhardt
(b.1972, Oxford; both live in Brighton) founded Semiconductor in
1997. In their practice they explore the underlying forces and
processes behind the appearance of the world. Working
closely with scientists, in particular in astronomy and
geology, they trace how science affects our experience and
observation of the world.
They are interested in the volcanic geology of the Galápagos and
undertook extensive research prior to their visit in January and
February 2010, which they then continued through a research
fellowship at the Smithsonian Institution's Mineral Sciences
Laboratory in Washington DC later that year.
Semiconductor primarily works with moving images, animation,
documentary and archival footage. Major works resulting from their
Galápagos residency and subsequent research include Worlds in the Making (2011), a
moving image installation blending animation and documentary
footage of volcanologists at work and that of landscapes with
active volcanoes. The botanists' practices on the Galápagos became
the subject of their short film Indefatigable (2010), which
premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2010.
Sound plays a key role in their work. They studied closely
the recordings of seismographic data on the Galápagos through
graphs, and the volcanologists' translations of heard sound into
verbal descriptions, which in turn were recreated for the
soundtrack of Worlds in the
Making. Most recently the artists have been experimenting
with paintings that are inspired by lava flows.
