For its unveiling today, Nicolai enhanced the project with a parallel light show on Pier 4, directly across from the ICC building. The artist channelled his inner Berghain (he is from Berlin, after all) and synchronized minimal techno beats with large, speaker-sized light structures that whizzed with geometric vertical interplays, contrasting with the building just a stone's throw away.
Nicolai casually mentioned the project at large was delineated by the human brain’s neural reactions to flashing lights. The set-up is meant to explore the effects that light impulses might have on the mood, relaxation, attention, and creativity of viewers. Even if the scientific inspiration isn’t immediately apparent, the cascade of bright horizontal light that scale up and down the massive ICC tower in an ever-changing narrative structure is enough to capture any passer-by's focus.While the artist, on his night of glory, was shy to speak about the specifics of the project, from the visual composition, one can only glean that α (alpha pulse) stems from Nicolai’s preferred themes of randomness and self-organizing patterns. The zips and blips certainly challenge the city’s otherwise static-but-fluorescent displays of neon decorative flair. After tonight’s major unveiling, Nicolai himself popped over to fellow artist Nadim Abbas’ bunker bar installation, Apocalypse Postponed, to jump on the DJ decks—only to continue the full-throttle trance that his installation had already inspired in everyone at Basel.
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