artworks

Hi-Fi Rise DVD

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2001
various lengths
Self released DVD 14 short films + DVD-Rom
A Semiconductor work by Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt.

Last few copies available online from LUX

Text from 2001:

This DVD debut by Semiconductor is one of the first independently produced DVD compilations of short films to be released. Set within a unique environment the films can either be searched for individually or all played on loop infinitely.

Featuring 14 moving image works, 8 by Semiconductor themselves and 6 from guests artists.

Semiconductor literally make films out of sound, transforming it into a visual material to compose landscapes and sound worlds. Their music can be described as a contradiction where ‘musique concrete’ becomes simultaneously hypnotic and violent, minimal and maximal. While many of their films are processed based explorations of sound and the moving image others explore animated fictional cities. ‘Retropolis’ takes you through an imaginary London where all you see and hear is the electricity passing through millions of flickering light bulbs or ‘Linear’ that links the sub-atomic world of ‘String theory’ to our own urban landscapes through the vibrations of sound.

Each of the guest musicians has either produced a film of their own or collaborated with a film maker:
Dat Politics work with Qubo Gas to produce an insane pixel cut up, while People Like Us brings her ‘plunderphonic’ music techniques to video. Others, such as Ian Helliwell, touch on the infamous early abstract films or in the case of Amon Tobin’s ‘Slowly’ (NinjaTune), Ben Rivers and Jeremy Butler create a delicate world out of familiar products. Cities are further explored by Process / Yvette Klein who take a trip through fragmented places and moments while Top Hat Productions test out their specially prepared pattern recognition glasses in public.

Also on the disk is a DVD-Rom section ‘Earthquake Films’ for PC and Mac where you can search further for the moving image within a sonic landscape.

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Supported by Arts Council England

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