Carsten Nicolai
2500 feet can loop

2500 feet can loop, 2011
Magnetic audiotape in Plexiglas box
150 x 100 x 7 cm
Courtesy the artist
The 762-meter-long tape unfolds in a 150 x 100 cm large Plexiglas box, accumulating and settling randomly. Through the arbitrary stratification of the recorded audio medium a new, visual, and self-organized composition comes into being. With the horizontal overlaps of the dark metallic material, the linear course of the thin strip and the interplay between extended passages and compaction, the artist captures principles of form from musical composition and shapes them into a new visually rhythmised, optical course of tension. The work is a tribute to the avant-garde group “Can,” which, due to their relatively complex and musically ambitious pop music, is considered to be one of the most influential German bands. Even today they are regarded as an important source of inspiration for many musicians.