Ruth Jarman and Joseph Gerhardt
Magnetic Movie
About the artists
Ruth Jarman and Joseph Gerhardt work under the name Semiconductor. Semiconductor make digital moving image works which reveal our physical world in flux; cities in motion, shifting landscapes and systems in chaos. Since 1999 UK artists Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt have worked with digital animation to transcend the constraints of time, scale and natural forces, they explore the world beyond human experience questioning our very existence. Their work has been exhibited extensively from Tate Britain and ICA London to the San Francisco Film Festival, Mutek Montreal and the Venice Biennale. Recent fellowships and residencies have supported site-specific work, including research and experimentation at the NASA Space Sciences Laboratories UC Berkeley, California.
About the work
The secret lives of invisible magnetic fields are revealed as chaotic ever-changing geometries. All action takes place around NASA's Space Sciences Laboratories, UC Berkeley, to recordings of space scientists describing their discoveries. Actual VLF audio recordings control the evolution of the fields as they delve into our inaudible surroundings, revealing recurrent 'whistlers' produced by fleeting electrons. Are we observing a series of scientific experiments, the universe in flux, or a documentary of a fictional world? Magnetic Movie originates from interviews conducted with space scientists on magnetic fields in relation to the Sun, Earth and Mars and the techniques they use to visualise them. Throughout the interviews the scientists would use metaphors in order to find a common language whereby we could start to comprehend the complex science they were describing; we learnt of hairy balls on the sun and dancing dots. When there were no likenesses they would describe abstract form and motion. Being confronted with the un-seeable and the unknown challenged our capacities to make sense of such an experience. We began to devise our own imaginary interpretations of what was expressed to try and find a way to comprehend and picture this world that exists beyond our sensory perceptions. An Animate Projects commission for Channel 4 in association with Arts Council England.
