Semiconductor - Matter in Motion
Matter in Motion
Directed by Semiconductur
2008
05:36 minutes
HD single channel
A Semiconductor work by Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt
Produced by Careof
The Universe is at once in a constant state of integration and disintegration. In searching for an understanding of the material world around us, Semiconductor have restructured the city of Milan. Displaying attributes more familiar to the molecular world its cityscapes have started to take on natural properties that reveal a city in pieces and generative forms that are in perpetual transformation.
Matter in Motion is a series of vignettes which originated as photographic panoramas taken around Milan. In each setting field recordings have been made and used to directly reconstruct the fabric of the city, introducing a temporal and spatial allusion. Give me matter and motion and I will construct the universe – Rene Descartes (1596-1650)
Commissioned by Careof Gallery Milan for Incontemporanea at La Triennale, Milan, Italy 2008.
The work was presented at IFFR 2009
SEMICONDUCOTR - BIOGRAPHY
For over 25 years, UK artist duo Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt, aka Semiconductor, have explored the human experience at the intersection between science and technology. Their innovative works confront us with the seemingly unknowable ephemerality of the natural world around us, contextualising scientific data into captivating sculpture, moving image and drawings that encourage us to expand our perceptions of reality and question our role as observers.
Known for their meticulous research, Semiconductor utilises a different technological approach with each piece, often spending months in science laboratories around the world studying the devices used to make sense of the natural world, these include; CERN, Geneva (2015); NASA Space Sciences Laboratory, UC Berkeley, California (2005); Mineral Sciences Laboratory, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (2010); Extreme Light Laboratory, University of Glasgow (2023) and the Charles Darwin Research Station, Galapagos (2010).
Semiconductor have exhibited their work internationally, selected exhibitions include: Measure, New Media Gallery, Vancouver, Canada, 2023; Schafhof Gallery, Freising, Germany, 2023 (solo show); HALO, John Hansard Gallery, Southampton, UK, 2021 (solo show); Semiconductor, The 14th Media Art Biennale Santiago, National Center of Contemporary Arts, (CNAC), Santiago, Chile, 2019 (solo show); The Technological Sublime, City Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand, 2019 (solo show); Quantica, CCCB, Barcelona, 2019; HALO, The 4th Audemars Piguet Commission at Art Basel, 2018; The View from Nowhere, Le Lieu Unique, Nantes, France, 2018 (solo show); SUPERPOSITION: Equilibrium and Engagement, 21st Biennale of Sydney, Australia 2018; Groundwork, CAST, Cornwall, 2018; No Such Thing As Gravity, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan, 2017; Earthworks, Sonar Planta, Sonar Festival, Barcelona, 2016 (solo show); 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; 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.
Collections include: Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC USA; Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; Sorigué Foundation, Spain; Audemars Piguet, Switzerland; University of Dundee Art Collection; private collections.
