Semiconductor's Earthworks at Sónar+D Barcelona
The British duo Semiconductor (Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt) presented their five-channel installation Earthworks at Sónar+D in Barcelona from June 16 to 18, 2016, as part of SónarPLANTA, a collaboration between Sónar and the Sorigué Foundation. The work translates scientific Big Data—seismic, glacial, volcanic, and urban—into generative audio and video, visualizing Earth's geological changes in the Anthropocene. Data sources include the public IRIS archive and the PLANTA quarry near Balaguer (Lleida), with assistance from geotechnology experts at the University of Barcelona. Inspired by the quarry's visible strata, the artists developed custom software that reads raw data and converts numbers into waves and sounds, creating an immersive, hypnotic environment. Earthworks is a unique, site-specific piece that raises questions about its future presentation beyond PLANTA.
Key facts
- Semiconductor is Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt.
- Earthworks was presented at Sónar+D in Barcelona.
- The event took place June 16-18, 2016.
- It was a production for SónarPLANTA, a collaboration between Sónar and Sorigué Foundation.
- The installation uses four types of seismic data: telluric, glacial, volcanic, and urban.
- Data was sourced from IRIS archive and PLANTA quarry.
- The artists worked with the University of Barcelona's geotechnology lab.
- The work is generative, based on raw data translation into audio and video.
Entities
Artists
- Ruth Jarman
- Joe Gerhardt
- Semiconductor
- Carsten Nicolai
- Alva Noto
- ART+COM
Institutions
- Sónar
- Sónar+D
- Sorigué Foundation
- SónarPLANTA
- University of Barcelona
- IRIS (Incorporated Research Institution for Seismology)
- Fundació Sorigué
- PLANTA
Locations
- Barcelona
- Spain
- Fira Montjuïc
- Balaguer
- Leida
- PLANTA quarry