carsten nicolai: unidisplay + uni(psycho)acoustic

carsten nicolaiunidisplay, 2012museum für moderne kunst, frankfurt am mainimage courtesy of carsten nicolai from the book carsten nicolai: unidisplay, copyright gestalten 2013

challenging human perception and the senses involved in evaluating the physical environment, carsten nicolai presents ‘unidisplay’ and ‘uni(psycho)acoustic’–two installations which deal with our ability to see and hear–at the museum für moderne kunst frankfurt am main (on until may 26th, 2013).

carsten nicolaiunidisplay, 2012museum für moderne kunst, frankfurt am mainimage courtesy of carsten nicolai from the book carsten nicolai: unidisplay, copyright gestalten 2013

‘unidisplay’ is an expansive work which operates on a number of modules of different visual effects which interfere with the viewer’s ability to visually perceive the actual imagery that is being displayed through the 14 meter long projection. this is executed through optical illusion (mirrors are positioned in a way that they stretch the actual size of the piece giving an all encompassing feeling), slight jitters and flickers, after-images, movement, complementary color effect etc. a basic visual is composed of sequences, motifs and graphic translations of various units of time measurement.

see designboom’s coverage of ‘unidisplay’ when it made its debut at milan’s hangarbicocca here.

carsten nicolaiunidisplay, 2012hangarbicocca, milanimage courtesy of carsten nicolai from the book carsten nicolai: unidisplay, copyright gestalten 2013

the sound chamber ‘uni(psycho)acoustic accompanies ‘unidisplay’, enhancing the optical work on an audio level, responding to visual elements of the projection. simultaneously with digital imagery, auditory elements are explored focusing on psychoacoustic phenomena and the effects of auditory impressions. the sound piece was developed with students of thestäatliche hochschule fur bildende künste städelschule in frankfurt/main during a guest professorship nicolai carried out there.

students: alexander tillegreen, ellen yeon kim, christin paula berg, alan brock-richmond, james gregory atkinson, jol thomson, lars becker, philipp bergmann, tobias donat, daniel stempfer, graziano capitta, franziska stenglin.

carsten nicolaiunidisplay, 2012musée d’art contemporain montréal, canadaphoto by richard-max tremblayimage courtesy of museum für moderne kunst, frankfurt am main

‘unidisplay’ publication by gestalten (front cover)

gestalten has put together a publication specifically on carsten nicolai’s ‘unidisplay’, offering an journey into scientific discourse, technical experimentation, perception research, architecture, art and sound. it elaborates on the german artist and musician’s research on audio-visual stimuli and their impact.

carsten nicolai and MMK museum für moderne kunst frankfurt am maineditors: susanne gaensheimer and eva huttenlauchrelease date: may 2013format: 18,5 x 23 cmfeatures: 80 pages, full color, hardcoverlanguage: english and germanISBN: 978-3-89955-486-1

visualizations(pp. 48 – 69)image courtesy of carsten nicolai from the book carsten nicolai: unidisplay, copyright gestalten 2013