1 00:00:30,343 --> 00:00:35,091 Could you tell us about the work that you did with Mr Wodiczko 2 00:00:35,310 --> 00:00:38,825 on the Personal Instrument, the support you gave him? 3 00:00:40,388 --> 00:00:47,790 Yes. I worked in the Experimental Studio since 1965 4 00:00:47,911 --> 00:00:52,781 and I think it was 1968 when Krzysztof Wodiczko showed up. 5 00:00:53,224 --> 00:00:57,625 At the time, he was a Master of Arts to be 6 00:00:57,735 --> 00:01:01,919 as he was still working on his master's degree project, 7 00:01:01,959 --> 00:01:09,127 which was the design of this cabin, or a kind of a grid. 8 00:01:09,361 --> 00:01:11,994 The so called Percussion Laboratory. 9 00:01:12,771 --> 00:01:19,163 I had a chance to watch how he developed and modified the design. 10 00:01:19,651 --> 00:01:23,434 But, incidentally, a totally different possibility came up. 11 00:01:24,055 --> 00:01:30,967 In 1968 I started to use, in various applications, 12 00:01:32,202 --> 00:01:36,174 photoresistors, or light dependent resistors. 13 00:01:38,433 --> 00:01:44,258 At the time, such accessories were mainly used 14 00:01:46,092 --> 00:01:52,945 for turning on and switching off street lights 15 00:01:53,984 --> 00:01:58,070 and in tv remote controls. 16 00:01:58,637 --> 00:02:01,518 However, I came to a conclusion that 17 00:02:01,526 --> 00:02:07,065 a photoresistor is a really cool instrument 18 00:02:07,314 --> 00:02:14,814 that can be used in our domain of concrete music and electronic music. 19 00:02:16,703 --> 00:02:21,171 The Experimental Studio was a place where paths 20 00:02:21,259 --> 00:02:26,917 of many visitors and collaborators crossed. 21 00:02:26,972 --> 00:02:31,422 At some point, this fact was noticed by Krzysztof Wodiczko 22 00:02:31,447 --> 00:02:36,787 who, at that time, I started to run into at the Studio. 23 00:02:37,013 --> 00:02:44,052 His idea was to build out of it a personal instrument. 24 00:02:44,647 --> 00:02:49,431 I put together all the electronic equipment 25 00:02:49,499 --> 00:02:51,624 that is a photoresistor, 26 00:02:51,687 --> 00:02:55,557 some kind of active circuit, which was also needed, 27 00:02:55,582 --> 00:02:59,804 a battery and other smaller accessories. 28 00:03:01,671 --> 00:03:06,219 Then, he designed and built what we can see here. 29 00:03:06,297 --> 00:03:10,758 The instrument consists of giant headphones, 30 00:03:10,812 --> 00:03:12,775 through which he perceives the sounds 31 00:03:12,807 --> 00:03:19,034 that are the effect of his, let's say, movement and operation of the instrument, 32 00:03:19,214 --> 00:03:23,979 and gloves with photoresistors mounted onto them. 33 00:03:24,350 --> 00:03:31,209 Moving his hands, or just clenching his fists, 34 00:03:31,293 --> 00:03:36,555 he excludes the sunlight in the photoresistors 35 00:03:36,684 --> 00:03:41,921 and causes certain modulations of the sound 36 00:03:42,366 --> 00:03:49,860 of his speech or any other sound material he prepared beforehand. 37 00:03:50,196 --> 00:03:55,311 In either case, he creates a certain sound event. 38 00:03:55,344 --> 00:03:58,540 Obviously, I helped Krzysztof to wire and start 39 00:03:58,565 --> 00:04:01,815 the whole apparatus so that it could work properly. 40 00:04:01,948 --> 00:04:06,436 When the instrument was ready, he invited me 41 00:04:06,460 --> 00:04:09,929 to the Academy of Fine Arts in Myśliwiecka Street 42 00:04:09,958 --> 00:04:16,450 where he was to give a performance to demonstrate his Personal Instrument 43 00:04:16,475 --> 00:04:21,020 to a wide audience of graduates, students 44 00:04:21,052 --> 00:04:24,555 and many others guests, including 45 00:04:24,586 --> 00:04:29,890 our mutual acquaintance Esztényi. 46 00:04:31,443 --> 00:04:36,162 I was very much impressed by Krzysztof's presentation 47 00:04:36,419 --> 00:04:42,903 because, for one thing, I was aware 48 00:04:42,928 --> 00:04:46,339 of how photoresistors can be used to obtain 49 00:04:46,364 --> 00:04:53,172 sound manipulations, or modulations, of various kind. 50 00:04:53,453 --> 00:05:00,086 The other thing was that Krzysztof gave a sort of, let's say, 51 00:05:00,165 --> 00:05:03,106 stage performance, which he created and thought through. 52 00:05:03,138 --> 00:05:08,719 He was fascinated with this whole venture. 53 00:05:08,797 --> 00:05:11,544 And everyone watched with great admiration 54 00:05:11,576 --> 00:05:15,576 because he performed as both an artist and an actor. 55 00:05:15,607 --> 00:05:21,224 I have a very vivid memory of this spectacle 56 00:05:21,255 --> 00:05:23,841 that Krzysztof delivered on this occasion. 57 00:05:23,912 --> 00:05:27,651 I realized it then that 58 00:05:27,783 --> 00:05:35,360 when such instrumentarium falls into the right hands, 59 00:05:35,415 --> 00:05:41,585 that is the hands of an artist, it enables to create 60 00:05:41,640 --> 00:05:47,745 an entirely new reality, some magical world. 61 00:05:47,823 --> 00:05:50,284 While working in the Experimental Studio, 62 00:05:50,308 --> 00:05:55,782 I also built a device called a photoelectric equalizer. 63 00:05:55,806 --> 00:06:01,917 It consisted of two sets, 64 00:06:01,941 --> 00:06:05,263 each of which had three photoresistors. 65 00:06:05,288 --> 00:06:12,274 They were fixed under the two lenses 66 00:06:12,430 --> 00:06:16,263 and operated within the system of two kinds of filters. 67 00:06:16,319 --> 00:06:22,025 One was a low-pass filter 68 00:06:22,750 --> 00:06:26,004 and the other - a high-pass filter. 69 00:06:30,793 --> 00:06:34,710 My colleagues, Bogdan Mazurek in particular, 70 00:06:34,719 --> 00:06:39,070 liked to use this device. 71 00:06:39,086 --> 00:06:44,409 By directing strong light from above onto it 72 00:06:44,464 --> 00:06:49,986 and moving his hands, crossing and uncrossing them 73 00:06:50,010 --> 00:06:56,375 he would induce a deep infiltration, or deformation, 74 00:06:56,400 --> 00:07:00,717 of the sound flowing through the apparatus. 75 00:07:01,346 --> 00:07:06,185 It was used in some of the pieces 76 00:07:06,217 --> 00:07:10,841 Bohdan Mazurek composed at the Studio. 77 00:07:11,776 --> 00:07:15,076 Discovering that a photoresistor, 78 00:07:15,114 --> 00:07:19,198 apart from its application in the industry and other fields, 79 00:07:19,252 --> 00:07:24,923 can become an important tool in the works of the Experimental Studio. 80 00:07:25,731 --> 00:07:31,238 resulted in the creation of Wodiczko's Personal Instrument 81 00:07:31,549 --> 00:07:38,475 but also of the photoelectric collector, which was preserved to this day 82 00:07:38,663 --> 00:07:42,928 and perhaps will be used during 83 00:07:42,999 --> 00:07:46,779 the possible reconstruction of the Experimental Studio, 84 00:07:46,819 --> 00:07:50,557 at it was discussed during our seminar. 85 00:07:51,261 --> 00:07:52,893 These are my impressions. 86 00:07:53,834 --> 00:07:54,423 Excellent. 87 00:07:54,602 --> 00:08:00,186 And the sound? What did it sound like to hear Wodiczko's instrument? 88 00:08:00,447 --> 00:08:03,911 It deforms the sound? Was it an aggressive noise? 89 00:08:04,061 --> 00:08:06,066 No, not aggressive. 90 00:08:09,050 --> 00:08:16,268 I think that it was his voice that he used for the most part. 91 00:08:16,842 --> 00:08:22,302 He had a microphone attached just like I have one here 92 00:08:22,326 --> 00:08:23,966 in medium close-up. 93 00:08:24,029 --> 00:08:29,302 So, he was articulating his oration, or improvising, 94 00:08:29,454 --> 00:08:32,764 but through the movement of his hands 95 00:08:32,788 --> 00:08:34,359 he processed it. 96 00:08:34,384 --> 00:08:38,135 In result, his speech was at times clear and understandable, 97 00:08:38,186 --> 00:08:41,715 at other times it got somehow deformed. 98 00:08:41,740 --> 00:08:44,786 Either the whole sound disappeared or faded 99 00:08:44,872 --> 00:08:47,299 or just its high or low tones. 100 00:08:47,331 --> 00:08:52,052 Well, in this way, a sort of harmony was created 101 00:08:52,076 --> 00:08:58,133 between the performer's gestures and the sound he transmitted 102 00:08:58,191 --> 00:09:05,665 as the sounds were spread through the loudspeakers 103 00:09:05,712 --> 00:09:07,930 for everyone around to hear. 104 00:09:07,955 --> 00:09:10,738 So, the audience was also fascinated by the fact that 105 00:09:10,769 --> 00:09:14,783 at one time they could hear and tell what he was articulating. 106 00:09:14,807 --> 00:09:18,432 Like when he held out his hands towards the light. 107 00:09:18,660 --> 00:09:23,660 Then his speech was fully understandable. 108 00:09:23,685 --> 00:09:29,159 But, at some point, through his hand movement, he would dull the sound 109 00:09:29,215 --> 00:09:32,684 and strip the voice of its high or low tones. 110 00:09:32,989 --> 00:09:37,339 The whole thing was an authentic play with sounds 111 00:09:37,364 --> 00:09:40,988 and a dynamic event in one. 112 00:09:41,073 --> 00:09:44,829 Mr Makowski, thank you very much. That was very interesting. 113 00:09:44,860 --> 00:09:45,860 Thank you.