Unidisplay

In unidisplay, the artist Carsten Nicolai explores our perception of audio-visual stimuli and their impact. After its debut in Milan, Carsten Nicolai’s formidable and expandable project unidisplay , which was constructed by star architect Werner Sobek, moved on to Frankfurt’s Museum für Moderne Kunst (MMK). this publication captures the consciousness- altering experiences it offers. An excursion into scientific discourse, technical experimentation, perception research, architecture, art, and sound, unidisplay is clearly structured, yet challenging for the senses. This book is a further manifestation of the artist and musician’s illusions, and reflections take our perception to its limits. In this project, Nicolai aims to not only make varying scales of time ―from a second to millions of years ―concrete and measurable, but also to give the visual language of symbols its own graphic vocabulary. In the end, he confronts us with optical illusions and their psychological impact, thereby turning his gigantic, abstract artwork into a human laboratory in real time. Breaking down unidisplay into the various elements of which it is composed, the book’s 80 pages include a gatefold covered with a reflective foil to simulate the experience of viewing it live. In this way, the publication allows readers to disentangle the project’s concentrated sensory flood, layer by layer. In the process, they not only gain insight into Nicolai’s impressive visual theories, but also into their own perceptions ― and how they might lead them astray.