From 6 - 24 January 2025, Semiconductor (Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt) are using Fabrica's main hall as a temporary private studio space to develop Light in Motion - a large-scale image capturing experiment using emerging technology they learnt about at a recent residency with the Extreme Light Group, based at the Department of Physics, University of Glasgow.

Whilst on residency in Glasgow, Ruth and Joe became intrigued by the way in which light behaves counterintuitively when observed at the speed of light, for example, noticing the way in which a pulse of light coming towards you does not arrive in the order that we experience on a human timescale, but arrives in reverse, due to the geometry of the photon's paths towards us.

The discussion will be facilitated by Prof. Sarah Cook, the curator of Semiconductor’s residency with the Extreme Light Group at University of Glasgow. They will speak together about Ruth and Joe’s time with the Extreme Light Group, the process of researching alongside scientists to develop new works and the starting points for and thinking behind the Light in Motion project.

About Semiconductor

Known for their meticulous research, Semiconductor employ a unique, self-taught technological approach for each piece, often spending months in science laboratories studying the devices used to make sense of the natural world. They have undertaken residencies at The Extreme Light Laboratory, University of Glasgow (2023); CERN, Geneva (2015); Mineral Sciences Laboratory, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (2010); NASA Space Sciences Laboratory, UC Berkeley, California (2005).

Semiconductor have exhibited their work internationally including at : PST: Art and Science Collide, California; The 14th Media Art Biennale Santiago, National Center of Contemporary Arts, Chile; City Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand; CCCB, Barcelona; 21st Biennale of Sydney, Australia; National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts; Sonar Festival, Barcelona; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; ZKM, Karlsruhe; Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich; House of Electronic Arts, Basel; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; International Film Festival Rotterdam; New York Film Festival; FACT, Liverpool; Royal Academy of Arts, London. www.semiconductorfilms.com

Sarah Cook is a curator, writer and researcher based in Scotland. She is Professor of Museum Studies in Information Studies at the University of Glasgow. From 2023 she is a guest professor in Art and AI with UmArts at University of Umeå as part of the WASP-HS programme.

She is editor of 24/7: A Wake-up Call For Our Non-stop World (Somerset House, 2019) and INFORMATION (Documents of Contemporary Art, Whitechapel and MIT Press, 2016) and co-author (with Beryl Graham) of Rethinking Curating: Art After New Media (MIT Press, 2010; Chinese edition 2016).

Sarah has curated and co-curated over 50 international exhibitions of contemporary art, new media art and digital art for museums, galleries and festivals including Somerset House, BALTIC, Eyebeam, V2_, The Banff Centre, AV Festival, AND Festival, Transitio Festival and for online platforms including Xcult, Add-art, SAW Video, and Bielefelder Kunstverein.

From 2013 to 2020 Sarah was one of the curators behind Scotland’s only digital arts festival NEoN Digital Arts and was founder/curator of LifeSpace Science Art Research Gallery in the School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee.