Visions of the Sun - Semiconductor Uncut

Semiconductor are an artistic duo who make fantastic animations.  Their films explore our experience of the natural world.  Geek star of television and radio science, Adam Rutherford and I interviewed them for the recent Radio 4 feature Frankenstein's Moon.  We talked to Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt about their stunning film Brilliant Noise - a glorious and mesmerising sequence of the Sun's greatest visual hits, as Joe put it. 

Listen to a longer version of the conversation between Ruth, Joe and Adam here. 



The chat had to be cut quite short for broadcast, missing the part where people agree to disagree about scientific revelation and what Brilliant Noise is about.


Brilliant Noise from Semiconductor on Vimeo.

Ruth and Joe explain how this animation  is made from thousands of raw data images from space-based and ground-based telescopes to produce a time-lapse solar sensation.  A vision of the Sun far from what we see when we look at the sky.  A triumph at the art-science interface.

Frankenstein's Moon also features writer-actor Mark Gatiss on astronomical aspects of Sherlock and the marvellous contemporary artist Cornelia Parker who wants put a meteorite back into space.