by Allegro » Wed Aug 31, 2011 2:15 pm
.
Note: highlights are mine.
By asking a group of space physicists the unanswerable, Semiconductor reveal the hidden motivations driving scientists to the outer limits of human knowledge. In an attempt to find meaning within the question, they open a Pandora’s Box of limitations within science itself, revealing their own philosophical confines. Issues of faith, medicine and the laws of matter are raised to illustrate the infinitely complex universe we live in.
Do You Think Science... | A Semiconductor film, 2006
— by Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt made at the NASA Space Sciences Laboratory, UC Berkeley, California, USA.
— Made during an Arts Council England International Artists Fellowship Programme: Art and Space Science at the UC Berkeley Space Sciences Lab., University of California, U.S.A. In partnership with the Leonardo network and NASA.
We knew that meeting and interviewing the space scientists would be a humbling if not an entirely intimidating experience. We, as artists look for the limits of meaning and often the unknowable where as scientists search for the concrete and absolute. It was time to turn the tables on the rocket scientists and find out how far beyond the known universe they would allow themselves to go.
— SEMICONDUCTOR SOUND FILMS An impossible question was poised that would suggest at a definitive answer but one which might include infinities, a touchy subject amongst some. Under the current climate in the States, scientists often find themselves scrutinized about their faith and beliefs conflicting with their work. Many times we found that our question provoked a defensive response believing that we were somehow after their belief structures.
The suggestion that science sometimes claims to hold the key to the bigger picture was frequently rejected but topics like “the theory of everything” were also raised and then rejected as mere catch phrases. But as we dug deeper we would find other closed doors to their hidden motivations. [MORE.]
Art will be the last bastion when all else fades away.
~ Timothy White (b 1952), American rock music journalist
_________________
