Where Shapes Come From – Semiconductor, Ruth Jarman, Joe Gerhardt (UK)
Exhibition
Filmmakers Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt visualise the invisible properties of the world, to show how matter is formed and shaped at an atomic level. Using raw data taken from the deepest part of the ocean as source material for the sound and the computer animations, they remind us of the alchemist motto ‘as above and so below’, which refers to the correspondence of the macrocosm and microcosm, the universe and the human.
Where Shapes Comes From (2016) is a moving image work which considers how science translates nature, on an atomic scale. Filmed at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, a scientist goes about his daily work in mineral preparatory labs: cutting up large meteorites. A mineralogist describes the coming together of atoms to form matter. From the rocks, fantastic shapes begin to emerge, showing how science translates nature, on an atomic scale.
Filmed at the Mineral Sciences Laboratory, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington D.C. during its 100th year.
Audio made from Mariana Trench seismic data courtesy of the IRIS (Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology) Network.
Dialogue: Jeffrey E. Post, Geologist, Curator in Charge, Mineral Collection, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington D.C., U.S.A.
Scientist: Jonathon Cooper
BIOGRAPHY
Semiconductor is UK artist duo Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt. They have been working together for nearly twenty years producing moving image works which explore the material nature of our world and how we experience it through the lens of science and technology.