Semiconductor

Brilliant Noise 05:56, Color, Stereo, GB, 2006

This black-and-white film shows grainy images of the exterior of a celestial body. Its swirling surface suggests a powerful source of energy: the sun. In contrast to the stereotypical yellow ball that we usually imagine, Brilliant Noise shows the sun as a constellation of fields of force, currents and energy bands. Its surface is in a constant state of flux, with eruptions, fumes and gases dancing across its burning skin. The unpolished and grainy images give the film something just slightly romantic. The images look like found footage. In a sense they are, because they have been picked out from among the hundreds of thousands of NASA files made by satellites orbiting the sun. Normally NASA edits these files before they are published, but Semiconductor used the raw footage. By editing similar images together, they have created sequences and thereby movement. (Netherlands Media Art Institute, Nanda Janssen)