Carsten Nicolai: reflektor distortion (2016)
How do we reshape the image of reality to make it fit in more smoothly with our own ideas and what we are used to? What does this distorted image say about how our own perception works, and what does it reveal about us?
Carsten Nicolai’s works are often organised around situations that focus on factors disturbing usual forms of perception or creative processes distorting our perception of reality. In his re... more >>
How do we reshape the image of reality to make it fit in more smoothly with our own ideas and what we are used to? What does this distorted image say about how our own perception works, and what does it reveal about us?
Carsten Nicolai’s works are often organised around situations that focus on factors disturbing usual forms of perception or creative processes distorting our perception of reality. In his reflektor distortion, the image of fluorescent tubes is reflected on the surface of the water in a bowl placed in front of them. This reflection is constantly distorted and transformed by the rotation of the bowl and the low-frequency sound vibrations coming from speakers. On the surface of the water, which is moved in a circular motion by the centrifugal force, the interferences of the waves created by the sound vibrations produce different distortions and reshape the image reflected from the strictly parallel fluorescent tubes and the reality around us.
Borbála Szalai
