Rafał Zapała on “Judge Me Again”

Watch my interview with Rafał Zapała on his piece “Judge Me Again “(2018) for flute and live electronics. It’s a piece about the violence of judging, symbolized by touching the performers as they play. Throughout the piece, any listener can approach and touch the musician at any time, and then observe how the gesture affects the playing. There again: the audience gains subjectivity and agency, but to a certain extent this happens at the expense of the performer, who loses control over the piece and becomes the object, if not the victim. Judge Me Again is unsettlingly reminiscent of Yoko Ono’s performance Cut Piece (1965).

Watch interview:

Watch fragment of the “Judge Me Again”:

Photo:

Rafał Zapała is composer, sound artist, improviser, and professor at the Academy of Music in Poznan. His music was presented at contemporary music festivals, jazz clubs, experimental music venues and open, public spaces. He is founder of Kołorking Muzyczny, an_ARCHE NewMusicFoundation and many ensembles (contemporary, improvised, electronic music). His concept of Live Electronic Preparation (LEP Technique) is published at Oxford Handbook of Interactive Audio (Oxford University Press, 2014).