Xerrox
Alva Noto
2006
Xerrox‚ the follow–up work to Cartsen Nicolai (Alva Noto)'s Transall, explores themes of dissolution and atomisation: separation of matter into component parts.
Xerrox takes its title and principle from the original xerox machine that copies graphic matter by the action of light on an electrically charged surface. In a similar way‚ Alva Noto’s xerrox is born out of a point of process‚ in which the ground material undergoes a series of shifts‚ stretches‚ zooms and ratio adjustments. The compressions‚ multiplications‚ scale changes and shifts in resolution to which Nicolai subjects his audio and visual sources become both the process and the content of Xerrox.
- 2006 Tour
—Tate Modern, London, UK
Heyri PAN Festival, Heyri Artvalley, South Korea
The Kitchen, New York, USA
Wien Modern Festival, Wien, Austria - Credits
—Xerrox was created by Cartsen Nicolai (Alva Noto) in 2006. Tour produced by Forma.
Whereas in former Alva Noto releases‚ sound has always been internally generated within the computer‚ Xerrox features a range of collected materials. Muzak‚ television advertising melodies‚ elevator bell tones – ambience that plays around us the whole day long – are used as ‘ground facts’ for Nicolai to begin gradual changes through a series of states.
Carsten Nicolai is a Berlin-based artist whose work comprises images, installations and music. Exhibited and performed in major galleries and festivals world-wide, Nicolai's works captivate consistently through elegance, simplicity and cool technicism. As Alva Noto, his compositions combine pared-down electronic sounds with the rhythmic groove of hip hop and R&B.
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Background image: Alva Noto performs Xerrox, 2006. Photo: Bertrand Prevost