Semiconductor, Still from “Black Rain,” 2009. Image courtesy of the Hirshhorn.

Brighton-based artists Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt, known together as Semiconductor, have collaborated on what they call “digital noise and computer anarchy” since 1999. Their video Magnetic Movie was screened in the Hirshhorn’s Black Box video gallery in 2008 and is now part of the permanent collection. This year, they return to the Hirshhorn as recipients of the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship (SARF) and will screen three of their short films as part of Hirshhorn After Hours on Friday, October 29. DCist spoke with Semiconductor about their work.

How did you come to art from science?

Well, it happened the other way round. We studied art, and through our interests in exploring how we experience the physical world around us, we started to dabble with scientific techniques and processes which allowed us to explore matter that was beyond our limited perceptions, revealing the world around us in a new light. Through this engagement we have become more interested in how we create an understanding of the world around us and have immersed ourselves more in the environments that science is carried out.