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“invertone” [2007]

Carsten NICOLAI

Outline

A pair of speakers are set face to face, and the white noise emanating from them seems to fill the installation space uniformly. Standing precisely in-between the speakers, however, the noise is muted to an almost perfect silence. Antiphase wave patterns (wave patterns in opposite phase) within this symmetrical configuration of speakers directly engaging each other, cause each to negate the other, creating this “blind spot.” “invertone” is an installation which allows you to experience the phenomena of damping (or attenuating) sound; a mutual interference of wave patterns in invert phase, in an anechoic chamber (a space covered with sound-absorbing materials).

The title is a portmanteau of the words “invert” and “tone.” In this piece, sound is treated as a subject at once invisible, fluctuating, immaterial, but none the less sculptural. Frequencies are revealed in the forms of physical phenomena such as vibrations of air and moiré: in fluids, but ordinarily there are few opportunities to experience their dimensions in air. This art work indicates how physical and geometric interference function in auditory phenomena, and how we perceive them. The minimalist installation design, of ready-made products such as sound-dampening materials and speakers, is an eloquent expression of the artist’s distinctive aesthetics.


Cooperation: Gallery EIGEN + ART, Berlin/Leipzig, PaceWildenstein, New York

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