C. Doswald, K. Ottmann, B. Schroder – Carsten Nicolai, Static Fades

C. Doswald

book – JRP Ringier – ISBN13: 9783905770636
Carsten Nicolai is a unique case in the sound art world. Somehow he’s the prototypal of the ideal contemporary sound artists: not classifiable merely as a musician, nor as an artist, but perfectly in between. He excellently combines technical and scientific knowledge with a clear vision. Especially being fond in science principles and practical use, he reflects the simple and purest beauty of involved structures, embodying it in a personal view that translates into perfectly balanced design. The “minimal” adjective, so often used to categorize his work, tells only 1/10th of the story. His art is more generally about “building beautiful systems”, whose rules are gently disrupting our acquired scientific knowledge. In this sense he can be easily considered a scientist, using art as inspiration for new methodologies. After the huge catalogue produced for his Frankfurt Schirn Kunsthalle personal exhibition, this book is its ideal companion, documenting in a similar style his works (Nicolai was an editor here as well), and their characteristics of space, scale, recurrence and generation. It’s another tour of its evolution, tracking different milestones and making once more worth the visual and theoretical journey.