The work of the British artist pair Semiconductor (Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt) reflects their enormous fascination with science. Using data which they themselves collect from existing archives, they are able to visualize complex and imperceptible phenomena in digital animations. ’20 HZ’ visualizes the course of an electromagnetic storm in the earth's outermost atmospheric layer. Data from CARISMA (Canadian Array for Real Time Investigations of Magnetic Activity), recorded at a frequency of 20 HZ, are the basis for this video. Jarman and Gerhardt interpreted the data as sound and used it to generate the image. The result is a digital black and white animation with ever-changing organic forms. The abstract sculptural patterns remind one of cloud banks, un…il they change into rain drops and other figures. Meanwhile the audio track crackles, we hear the sounds of stormy weather and the wind. With ‘20 HZ’ Semiconductor investigate the friction between the natural and the artificial, and interrogate our experience of such invisible phenomena. Read more...