Semiconductor
founded in 1997
www.semiconductorfilms.com
contact:
Biography:
Semiconductors
Sound Films are concerned with many processes of digital animation and,
by way of these, reveal our physical world in flux; cities in motion,
shifting landscapes and systems in chaos. Central to these works is the
role of sound, which becomes synonymous with the image, as it creates,
controls and deciphers it; exploring resonance, through the natural order
of things.
Finely crafted digital work is combined with analogue processes that tailor
the nuances and randomness within computer systems as co-conspirator.
Presented as fictional documentaries, these works are set in the future;
histories yet to be considered.
These films are screened in galleries, festivals and biennials worldwide;
in addition they are presented as surround sound installations. Semiconductor
also produce live Sound Film works which they perform at multi-media festivals
and events.
Live Sound
Film Biography:
Semiconductor are UK artists Ruth Jarman and Joseph Gerhardt. They make
films out of sound using abstract landscapes and architecture as, a means
to describe aural and visual interpretations of the world. Finely crafted
digital work is combined with analogue processes that tailor the randomness
and errors within computer systems as co-conductor. Their music can be
described as a contradiction where 'musique concrete' becomes simultaneously
hypnotic and violent, minimal and maximal. These sound-scapes are a playground
for imaginary environments and impossible modernist architecture.
Live Digital performance is one strand of Semiconductors output; they
also produce surround sound installations and single screen Sound Films
which are exhibited at galleries, festivals and biennials worldwide.
Sonic Inc synopsis:
Sonic
Inc.: Live digital performance software by Semiconductor [Ruth Jarman
and Joseph Gerhardt]
Semiconductors latest contribution to the genre of live cinema is their
dedicated live performance software Sonic Inc; a real-time 3D drawing
tool, where creations are realised by specific sound inputs and user interaction,
producing dynamic audio created, and controlled environments. By embracing
the computer as co-conspirator, they are revealing new modes of artificial
expression.
Semiconductors performance charts the beginning of an artificial world
and its shapeless inhabitants. We follow the evolution of an unformed
landscape and its simple life forms which grow according to the sound-scape.
Forming as basic structures and developing into creatures, they learn
to move autonomously, grow, respond to and build their own environments.
http://www.semiconductorfilms.com/sonic_inc.htm
'There is
a current sense that the hierarchy of 'digital visual art versus electronic
music' is being dismantled. Artists and musicians alike are transcending
the language of image and sound as these territories begin to draw from
the same new technologies. This cross-over of practice and technique is
evolving in the form of short films and videos where data flow and the
interpretation of information is explored formally and representationally.'
(Artificial
Expressionism, Ruth Jarman and Joseph Gerhardt, Sonar 2002)
Semiconductor's
work is at the forefront of an emergent, hybridised practice that blurs
the lines between sound and image and confounds the viewer/listener as
they attempt to determine the etymology of the work. "We have sought
to physically tie the senses of sight and sound in an attempt to transcend
their difference and possibly find a place where they have no distinction."
Sound cinema is one tecurrently used to describe this process though it
seems like a weak articulation of an evolving practice that refuses such
neat categorisation. Inaudible Cities, part-commissioned by Lighthouse,
is a visual/aural architecture where the audience become the occupants
of a space that is unfamiliar yet feels like home.
(Evelyn
Wilson, Hospital Festival: Brighton: UK)
6th
December 2004
Semiconductor:
Some
thoughts on producing Live Sound Films and Semiconductors; Sonic Inc.
The generalisation
of digital art has led to the misinterpretation and lack of distinction
between several art forms, specifically in the field of live image and
sound works. There is a common misunderstanding that Vjing is a precursor
to current explorations in live image and sound performance, or that they
are the same thing. Nuances in these fields need to be clearly defined
so they can be developed and challenged.
These are some notes on our art form of Live Sound Films and our new performance
software Sonic Inc.
In our Sound Films, the sound and the image have always existed to reflect each other. They are not made as an accompaniment, but so they become the same thing, are synonymous. This is emphasised in works where the sound controls, or is the image and vice versa. When translating these correlations into our live works, two main technical challenges arose that needed to be overcome; real-time limitations imposed by the computer hardware and the existence of suitable software to achieve our aims.
Past trends in live image and sound have seen artists depending on globally used software for the creation of work, which tends to homogenise the output. These styles quickly become very recognisable and thus diminish the ability to challenge the artist or the viewer. We knew that if we wanted to create our own language and challenge the current mode of practice in live image and sound, we would have to programme our own software environments specifically to our concepts, visual, audio and presentation needs. During this process it quickly became apparent that to conquer hardware restrictions and produce truly live generated image and sound, it was important that it became a collaboration between us and the computer. To achieve this we would have to embrace the innate material of the computer and work with what is possible, not fighting with producing complex imagery or image sound relationships that could not be computed in real time.
Of consideration,
is that when making any art, the medium you choose should be the best
form of expression for your idea, or how you want to communicate it. The
nature of performance is that the context, moment, mood and artist etc.
all have some bearing on the outcome of the piece of work. So, if the
live image and sound were to be documented in a linear form, you can assume
that it would not maintain certain nuances and integrities. Therefore,
where the creation is pre-recorded or where the sound has not been made
specifically for the image [or vice versa] does it really rise to the
challenge of live image and sound?
Sonic Inc.
We have been performing Live Sound Films since 2002. In October 2004 we
completed and performed with our new performance software Sonic Inc. It
is ultimately a real-time drawing tool, which builds by, and responds
to sound. It is not an entirely computated piece of work, but a collaboration;
as the artist we have a dynamic relationship with the programme, influencing
the overall piece via on screen drawing, to generate structures and compositions.
We have created a tool which encourages improvisation. Interacting with
the computer as analogue drawing tool gives a handmade quality to the
real-time creations, accentuating this partnership between the artist
and computer. This identifies with our proposal of Artificial Expressionism,
a pledge between the computer and the artist; the artificial, indicative
of zeros and ones combined with the human expression, the unpredictable
element.
The visual aesthetic of Sonic Inc. is working away from the hi-tech world of computer graphics and towards the inherent visual language of the computer as material. We have stripped back the slick complexity of current computer graphics, to reveal the basic building blocks of computational visual language. We take this as being lines, squares and colour; from these most simple forms and realisations, all other structures and combinations can be made. This way the computers offerings come as neutral as possible, free of any visual connotations, allowing us to explore the nature of the medium. These basic forms lend themselves to real-time creation, with the computer processing the smallest amount of data. The sound has been made specifically to produce the image; allocating time and structure for precise roles and dividing up the soundtracks to build and animate particular parts of the compositions. Likewise the drawing aesthetic has been carefully considered to react to and illustrate the sound, revealing a harmony between the two senses.
The narrative of our
current performance with Sonic Inc charts the beginning of an artificial
world and its shapeless inhabitants. We follow the evolution of an unformed
landscape and its simple life forms which grow according to the sound-scape.
We start with the most basic static forms and structures, realised by
sound, which elaborate into a sequence of real-time dynamic compositions.
Forming as basic structures and developing into creatures, the life forms
learn to move autonomously, grow, respond to and build their own environments.
This progression can lend itself as much to the birth and development
of the microchip as it does to that of the proposed universe.
We identify with a history of computer film and are interested in continuing this dialogue. Pioneers of computer based works were restricted by hardware processing. Today, what we can achieve in real-time would have taken days in the beginning to complete as a linear work. Technological advances have given us the possibility to develop this language, paying homage to early pioneers and celebrating the computer as medium.