Since 1999, the artist duo Semiconductor, composed of Ruth Jarman and Joseph Gerhardt, has dealt with assorted processes for the production of moving images and live performances in connection with sounds. Their specially developed live performance software Sonic Inc. allows them to generate visual compositions by means of drawing and manipulation in real time while the computer analyzes the sound space. In their work Inaudible Cities: Part One, sound parameters construct an entire city in virtual space. Natural as well as urban landscapes are a recurring area of Semiconductor’s interest.

Inaudible Cities: Part One was produced in 2002/2003. An electrical storm, translated into electronic sounds, generates and controls architectural forms, such as, for example, cuboids, lines, or planes. At the beginning of the piece it is dark and silent. As soon as the first sounds are introduced, the first cuboid is written onto a plane. Each ensuing sound draws further cuboids, so that a formation gradually develops that is reminiscent of a modern urban landscape. Buildings grow out of cuboids that have been piled on top of each other with the progression of the sounds and successively expand to become an entire city. Over the course of the performance, the forms vary even more: sometimes they are small, flat blocks that like stairs or abstracted patterns are attached to extensive wall surfaces; other times lines are drawn diagonally through the street canyons built out of large cuboids.

In addition, Semiconductor slowly and imperceptibly change the observation standpoint: at the beginning, one sees the city from a distance; with time, the perspective zooms in deeper and deeper until ultimately, minute details are added to the architectural elements, which now appear to be monumental.

Inaudible Cities: Part One has been performed live at numerous festivals, for example at the Avanto Festival in Helsinki (2002) and at the Netmage 03 in Bologna (2003). From 2002 to 2005, the work was presented worldwide as a series of short films or as an installation.