- Can you introduce yourself?
My name is Rafał Zapała. I’m a composer of contemporary and experimental music, very often combining it with different kind of technology. I do not recognize any boundaries between music acquired through academic education, experience of the counterculture and collaborating with artists from other fields of art. My music has been presented at contemporary music festivals, jazz clubs, experimental music venues and open, public spaces. I use also sounds as physical objects in sound-art & art-and-science projects.
I am holding a post-doctorate (habilitation) degree from composition, affiliated as an Assistant Professor to Academy of Music in Poznan, Poland.
- Can you present your project Sensorium Audio Theatre?
The idea of Sensorium is clear and defined. Let’s imagine the Visitor can sit alone inside the space surrounded by composed music, and s/he can control it with bio-physical data. So simple. It is a new environment for experience of music: an immersive, interactive, biofeedback-data-driven aural environment (by means of biofeedback technology in the tradition of Alvin Lucier’s artworks). The idea of “Sensorium” as “Sound Theatre” stems from numerous artistic and scholar traditions. Within interdisciplinary character, it is imbued with the spirit of holistic and integral perception of human emotions, intellect and physiology. “Sensorium” is an intimate, “anti-mass”, one-person experience.
- What do you expect from this residency?
I hope to develop the idea of Sensorium into new type of musical experience.
We, together with tech partner (PSNS, Future Lab) are going to create universal, flexible environment (hardware and software) that connects art of musical composition with bio- and neurofeedback technology. Such a “bridge” will be a new tool for artists, and also has a chance to be used in education, psychology and other areas.
