Dzeus II
performance, 2021

Grotowski Institute, Laboratory Theatre Space and HEVRE (Kraków) / May 13, 8:30 PM

Audiovisual performance using an interactive installation – a lightning generator.  Dzeus II is a device that produces very high voltage. The system consists of capacitors, resistors and spark gaps. Together with a vacuum pump, it forms the basis for the operation of a kind of instrument. In the history of technology, the Marx generator was used to produce X-rays. In Janicki’s installation, electrical spark discharges, including in a vacuum, provide the environment that generates image and sound. The performance is enhanced by a layer of sound generated intuitively and moderated by an EEG (frontal lobe brain wave reader). One component of the generative database is Wagner’s piece Twilight of the Gods (Götterdämmerung), the 4th part of the musical drama The Ring of the Nibelung, played backwards.  The polyphonic patchwork consists of processed sounds of concrete and electronic music. The whole sonosphere is complemented by a layer of instrumental music: cello, double bass, violin and saxophone, creating irregular intervals in the intuitive relationship of musicians with the performer, at the same time drawing inspiration from the image, a kind of visual score.

The performance is multi-sensory in nature. Electrical discharges influence air ionization, through the production of ozone the chemical composition of the air and its smell changes. The effect of the installation is also the production of plasma – ionized matter, occurring in the form of a gas composed of electrically charged particles. This kind of artificial storm is perhaps the nature of our modern experience. It is complemented by the hybrid nature of the event in which streaming, mediated by media, are another component of the reflection relating to the story of our condition. The condition of Homo Deus? Homo Dzeus?

venue: HEVRE, Cracow

guest appearances: musicians from The Orchestra of the Royal Capital City of Krakow — Sinfonietta Cracovia:
Alina Drożyńska – cello
Katarzyna Blajda – violin

musicians from the HiQ Formation:
Rafał Mazur – bass guitar
Michał Dymny – electric guitar
Maria Janicka – electronics
Piotr Madej – sound designer
Czop – czoper – sound designer

Aleksander Janicki (PL)

Aleksander Janicki – intermedia artist, performer, graphic designer, photographer, sculptor, set designer, creator of video and semiautomatic and interactive installations (often innovative in nature) including multi-sensory, site-specific and public space structures. Curator, author of projects in the field of multimedia, architecture, graphic design, exhibitions based on new technologies (AR, VR, AI, holography, immersion). Director of actions in public space and of hybrid character, including para-theatrical and based on projection technology, large-format, mapping and multi-channel zone sound. He has collaborated with many international artists including Maja Ratkie, Shoichi Yabuta and Mokoto Ofune. His interdisciplinary work, using various creative strategies, addresses issues related to the dialogue of cultures, identity and exclusion, mass media and reproduction, database structure, artificial intelligence, cultural nomadism and the condition of the contemporary everyman in the context of the Anthropocene. Founder of HiQ Formation, Big Data Collective performing audiovisual performances based on the strategy of intuitive and generative music, in which the image created in real time by the performer becomes a score for the musicians. Creator of the International Forum Culture Futura, AYA Found, Galeria i!, Apteka janicki galery, PerForm. For many years a lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow. He has won many prestigious awards at home and abroad.

aptekagallery.com
alekjanicki.eu
performspace.eu
hiq.com.pl

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