The conception thanks to which the installation was created emerged during two artistic residencies: in CCRMA at Stanford University, California, and in Centrum Kultury ‘Zamek’ in Poznań.
The first space the project was realized in was the interior of a monumental clock tower in the centre of Poznań. On a platform hung several meters above the ground, a scenography based on Jean Pierre Jeunet’s The City of Lost Children was arranged. The user of the installation was equipped with biofeedback devices — a heart rate monitor, GSR and EEG, which enabled exerting influence on the music emitted by several loudspeakers.
A fragment of the session says:
Sensorium is an instrument playing music you control with your brain, skin on your left palm, and heart. (…) We’ve built an instrument that does not work without you — you’re truly, not metaphorically, the engine of the installation. You’re surrounded by sounds, but in an extraordinary way. Their character follows the state of your mind. The equipment you have on you allows you to shape the music surrounding you.
In the experiment designed by Zapała numerous categories cross: a theatrical event, musical concert, diagnostic examination and individual contemplation becoming creative work. Sensorium is dedicated to one user, who is first prepared to the session by a ‘silent assistant’, later supervising its realization.
In November 2015 the installation was started in the water tower in Leszno. The authors of the project are open to collaboration with other cities. The next parts of the Sensorium project will be contained in the specific cultural fabric of particular places. They will also get new musical content composed by Rafał Zapała. Local artists and music groups will be invited to perform the music.
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Rafał Zapała is a composer and improvising musician (piano, drums, live electronics). He works as assistant professor at Composition Department in Electroacoustic Music Studio of the Academy of Music in Poznań.
He graduated from composition and conducting studies. Zapała participated in many courses and workshops conducted by, among others, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Tristan Murail, Beat Furrer, Pauline Oliveros and Alvin Lucier.
He’s the founder and head of the an_ARCHE NewMusicFoundation. An article written by Zapała about his own original conception of Live Electronic Preparation (LEP Technique) was included as a chapter in Oxford Handbook of Interactive Audio, published by Oxford University Press in 2014.
Selected compositions:
- GON for ensemble and electronics (2008)
- SumoSexyMasta for two bands (2010)
- Poster for string quartet and live electronics (2010)
- Nicolette for flute and live electronics (2010)
- SKANER for orchestra, live electronics and soundscape (2011)
- Cleaner for double bass and live electronics (2013)
- Lutoslow for ‘tape’ (2013)
- Sensorium, sound installation (2014)
Author: Agnieszka Grzybowska, translation: Natalia Sajewicz