Semiconductor: Earthworks is presented by The Lab and Recombinant Media Labs as part of the Recombinant Festival 2018

Opening: Tuesday, November 27; 6-8pm
Gallery Hours: November 27–December 2, 6-8pm
Free

Earthworks, created in 2016, is a five-channel computer generated animation, which creates an immersive experience of the phenomena of landscape formation through the scientific and technological devices that are used to study it. Masses of colorful layers are animated by the soundscapes of earthquake, volcanic, glacial and human activity, recorded as seismic waves, which form spectacular fluctuating marbled waveforms.

Semiconductor have acquired seismic data captured as a result of land shifting and forming, from all over the world. There are four distinct sections to the work, each using a different set of seismic data. This includes; glacial, earthquake, volcano and man-made seismic activity captured at La Planta quarry, Spain, to represent the Anthropocene, a new geological era influenced by humans. The data has been translated to audio to form the soundtrack of the work, and simultaneously control the animation of the layers. The data as sound directly sculpts the image, re-animates the landscape, and reflects the symbiotic relationship between landscape formation and seismic vibrations. The seismic audio is rich and full of the intricacies of the dynamics of our planet in motion.

The title Earthworks acknowledges the history of the Land Art movement which used actual landscapes as an artistic medium. With the advent of digital techniques and processes, Semiconductor have expanded on this notion, sculpting imperceptible physical landscapes that exist on a massive scale.

Semiconductor is UK artist duo Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt. Through moving image works they explore the material nature of our world and how we experience it through the lens of science and technology. Semiconductor have undertaken fellowship opportunities and residencies at a number of prestigious institutions including CERN, Geneva, Switzerland; Mineral Sciences Lab at The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington DC, USA; Gulbenkian Galapagos Artists Residency; The NASA Space Sciences Laboratories UC Berkeley, California, USA; Berwick Gymnasium Fellowship, Berwick-Upon-Tweed, UK and Couvent des Récollets, Paris.

Semiconductor have exhibited and screened their work internationally, selected exhibitions include Superposition, 21st Biennale of Sydney, 2018; The Universe and Art, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan 2016; Infosphere, ZKM, Karlsruhe, 2016; 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. semiconductorfilms.com

Earthworks is commissioned by SónarPLANTA Produced by Advanced Music
Worldwide seismic data used in this project has been acquired through the IRIS online portal.

Thanks to:

Fundació Sorigué
Sónar Festival/Advanced Music
Nigel Bax

University of Barcelona:
Dr. Albert Casas Ponsati
Raul Lovera Carrasco
Mahjoub Himi Benomar
Dr. Josep Anton Muñoz
Oriol Ferrer

Cai Matthews
Jose Luis de Vicente
Salvador Rey Nagel

Seismic data courtesy of the Iris (Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology) Consortium

Images: Earthworks installation shots from SónarPLANTA 2016, Fundació Sorigué, Barcelona

Semiconductor: Earthworks is part of the Recombinant Festival // Nov 26 - Dec 2, 2018