Semi Conductor - Worlds in Flux

  by Jamie Rowland

published: 23 / 3 / 2007

intro

Semiconductor are UK artists Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt, who have been working together since 1999 making sound-films, music videos and live animation. Jamie Rowland finds that their compilation DVD, 'Words in Flux', will be most enjoyed by those with a keen interest in art

Semiconductor are UK artists Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt, who have been working together since 1999 making sound-films, music videos and live animation. This DVD, 'Worlds in Flux', is a collection of works representing cities in motion and shifting landscapes. The short films are, like a lot of modern visual art, quite hard to get to grips with in my opinion. They are very beautiful, particularly 'Brilliant Noise', which shows images of solar flares shooting up from the surface of a sun. This film is also notable for the number of artists who have provided alternative soundtracks for it, including Our Brother The Native and Ensemble. I would say, however, that you need a particular interest in art, and in particular video art, to really enjoy these pieces. 'Do You Think Science ?' stand outs from the other videos, in that rather than having created extraordinary visuals, it features a number of people, presumably scientists, answering questions such as "can science understand everything?" The answers these people give are really very interesting and, I feel, quite enlightening, and the piece makes for enjoyable viewing. The music videos featured on the DVD include Mum's 'Green Grass of Tunnel', a painfully brilliant piece of music accompanied by a beautiful video where a flock of paper birds soar over a created landscape. Also featured is Double Adaptor's '200 Nanowebbers'. The insanity of the music is complimented here by a video of connected particles floating in a white space, growing and pulsing along to the music and forming beautiful shapes and formations. This is, I think, my favourite of all the videos featured on 'Worlds in Flux'. The third, and final, of the music videos included is QT's 'qqq'. Again, the music is insane, and the video no different. A sea of white dots explodes into life, forming different colours and shapes. It's only about a minute long, but it's striking none-the-less. The other section of the DVD is 'Live Cinema', a selection of videos documenting Semiconductor's live performances. Again, this will be most appreciated by those with a real interest for visual art. 'Worlds in Flux' is a really interesting watch, even if it's not a DVD you will watch again and again. The work Jarman and Gerhardt create really is impressively beautiful, but I think a lot of people will find it a little too arty to really enjoy.