Carsten Nicolai
Alva Noto
© photo: Summer Yen, Taiwan
Year of birth, place
1965
Germany
Role at the ZKM
- Guest Artist
Institute / Department
- Institute for Music and Acoustics
Biography
Carsten Nicolai (a.k.a noto / alva noto / aleph) is part of an artist generation who works intensively in the transitional area between art and science. As a visual artist, Nicolai seeks to overcome the separation of the sensory perceptions of man by making scientific phenomenons like sound and light frequencies perceivable for both eyes and ears. his installations have a minimalistic aesthetic that by its elegance and consistency is highly intriguing.
Further aspects of his works consider the integration of chance as well as the inspection of the interchanging relations of micro and macro structures. Special interest he also puts on so-called self-organizing processes, which for example occur when snow crystals develop.
For several years now Carsten Nicolai experiments with sound under the pseudonym noto to create his own code of signs, acoustic and visual symbols. As alva noto, he leads those experiments into the field of electronic music.
(2016)
Further aspects of his works consider the integration of chance as well as the inspection of the interchanging relations of micro and macro structures. Special interest he also puts on so-called self-organizing processes, which for example occur when snow crystals develop.
For several years now Carsten Nicolai experiments with sound under the pseudonym noto to create his own code of signs, acoustic and visual symbols. As alva noto, he leads those experiments into the field of electronic music.
(2016)