Carsten Nicolai's "Alpha Pulse" Lights Up the Hong Kong Skyline
By Kitty van Leeuwen
View from Hong Kong Island of Carsten Nicolai’s Alpha Pulse (2014). Photo by Kitty van Leeuwen for ArtAsiaPacific.
What could be a better canvas to work on than Hong Kong’s iconic skyline? For this year’s Art Basel in Hong Kong, German light and sound artist Carsten Nicolai did just that with Alpha Pulse (2014), a huge installation powered by the light system of the city’s International Commerce Centre (ICC). For three nights during the fair, the 484-meter-high building, which sits across the harbor in Kowloon, sent pulsating light signals for just under an hour. With an app created by the artist available for download, participants could also receive the light and audio signals from the tower on their own phones, and experience a new way of interacting with the city.
