_Black Rain_ is a moving-image work made in collaboration with scientists, using data from the Heliospheric Imager (HI). HI is a pair of hi-tech cameras that are observing the space between the sun and the earth from two vantage points in space on the Stereo mission satellites, investigating the structure and propagation of CMEs (coronal mass ejections) as they travel into space from the sun’s surface.

We worked directly with the scientists to acquire the individual images, which we turned into a time-lapse sequence. We were able to work with the raw data and had the luxury of asking for the images to be processed to reveal specific information for our requirements. Scientists routinely clean up their data to remove unwanted visual noise which interferes with their scientific objectives. We wanted to encourage these “visual anomalies” in the image processing so that we could reference the technology being used, which emphasizes the presence of a human observer looking out on the universe and trying to understand their place in it. We often use technology signatures in this way to suggest the presence of a watcher.

We explore the nature of the physical world, how we experience it and create an understanding of it, often mediated through the tools of science. We are interested in the matter we see in the data, how the technology reveals these things to us that would otherwise go undetected with the limits of human perception. The way we are observing it comes to the forefront when we see the noise it introduces in the capturing process, as well as cosmic ray flecks impacting the camera’s CCD and other interesting material affects on the capturing process, it also includes many visual anomalies introduced to the image through the capturing technology.

There are three versions of this work, single screen, installation and a live performance.

Links: http://www.semiconductorfilms.com/

Semiconductor (UK) is the artist duo Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt. Through moving image works, sound and multi-media installations they explore the material nature of our physical world and how we experience it. They have worked together for twelve years developing a unique approach to working with the computer as a sculptural tool. Through self-developed techniques of manipulation, generation and observation they create first-person experiences of the material world around us, beyond the limits of our perception.