Natalia Kowalska-Elkader

The article presents selected works by Eugeniusz Rudnik in comparison to other creators of the Polish Radio Experimental Studio (PRES). The research material consists of selected broadcasts by Rudnik and other PRES creators from the years 1959-2002, as well as cultural and publicistic pieces preserved in the Archives of the Polish Radio in Warsaw, obtained or listened to during the conducted archival queries. In a chronological arrangement, I present verbal-sound works in the context of socio-historical events, genre affiliation and applied forms of expression. It is an introduction to a broader project contextualizing Polish radio art internationally. Part of the broadcasts I have cited has never been the subject of radio research before. The aim of the articles is to characterize the works created in PRES, as well as to outline the genre affiliation of the 55 works cited.

In the structure of radio experiments, the pattern is present and not every sound composition composed in any way fits into this pattern and is artistically valuable as well as it is not necessarily experimental radio drama or avant-grade music. The common features and structural aspects are the base of the for the main aim of this article, which is to describe the nature of radio experiments, establish their genre pattern in four aspects (stylistic, pragmatic, structural and cognitive) and to define the ruling principles of this form. The chosen research methods include literary analysis and criticism as well as some elements of structural analysis. The hypothesis of this article is the radio experiment as an autonomic radio genre, even though it is a very complex and internally diverse form. This article describes the matters of structure, aesthetics and non-aesthetics in the field of radio experiment with the examples from Polish Radio Experimental Studio and others.

The main aim of this publication ist to identify, classify and describe radio dramas that were made for Studio Eksperymentalnych Form Teatralnych (Experimental Drama Studio) and as a Nowe Słuchowiska/New Radio Dramas project. I will also provide a description of sound and voice materials of so-called experimental radio dramas. In the rst part, the article explains the experimental radio drama genre. It shows the drama subgenres and determinants of experimental drama pattern. In the second part, the article is focused on broadcasts made by Studio Eksperymentalnych Form Teatralnych (Experimental Drama Studio) and in the project New Radio Dramas.

The genre which is the basis of my research and the subject of analysis in this text is the feature, also called artistic radio documentary. The main aim of the article is to show the variety of features and the possible way to define and understand this genre. The first section describes the origins of this type of program and how it can be defined by European, Australian and American researchers. It also provides the genre pattern of feature divided into four aspects. Later in the text I describe subgenres of contemporary feature based on their structure and used sound materials. The second part of the text focuses on representations of these categories in Polish and foreign productions and tries to classify them according to the type of fiction applied or its form. The employed methods include literary analysis and criticism as well as some elements of structural analysis. The research questions I ask myself are related to the way of creating features, their form and its relation to the content.

Form in sound art is the crucial aspect for both analysis and per- ception. The theoretical basis includes, among others, the theory of ‘Pure Form’ devised by Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz and Susan Sontag’s theory of interpretation. Later in the text, issues of aesthetics and anti-aesthetic are mentioned. The research questions dealt with in this text were: What is the position of form in sound art and how is it related to content? What kinds of means of expression can be applied? The employed methods in- clude literary analysis and criticism as well as some elements of structural analysis. The examples analyzed in this article were broadcasts by Gregory Whitehead, Eugeniusz Rudnik, Tomasz Plata, and Antye Greie. The per- ception of the art can be disturbed by certain means of expression such as formal chaos or noise which is also considered in the text.

Experiment as a radio genre
The main aim of this article is to describe the nature of radio experiment, its genre pattern and relations with modern radio art and to define the ruling principles of this form. Literature Theory, journalism genres (both press and radio), genre’s pattern theory will be the referring points for this study.  Radio experiment can be understood as an autonomic radio genre, even though it is a very complex and internally diverse form. Experimental forms have been always outside of the mainstream radio research although they had an influence on the development of radio genres in the past and their contemporary form. This article describes the matters of structure, aesthetics and non-aesthetics in the field of audio experiment.
Streszczenie
Celem tego artykułu jest wyjaśnienie istoty eksperymentu audialnego, określenie jego związku z innymi gatunkami radiowymi, współczesną sztuką audialną oraz sformułowanie praw rządzących eksperymentem fonicznym i jego wyznaczników gatunkowych. W badaniu eksperymentu posłużę się opracowaniami literaturoznawczymi, które będą stanowić dla mnie punkt odniesienia teoretycznego. Ze względu na próbę określenia eksperymentu jako gatunku, metodą, którą wybrałam, jest radioznawcze podejście genologiczne z wykorzystaniem wzorca gatunkowego. Eksperyment radiowy może być traktowany jako autonomiczny, mimo wewnętrznego zróżnicowania, realizacje wykazują pewne cechy wspólne. Formy eksperymentalne znajdowały się na marginesie badań radioznawczych, mimo że miały duży wpływ na rozwój i oceny kształt klasycznych gatunków audialnych. Artykuł omawia również kwestie struktury, estetyki i antyestetyki radiowych dzieł eksperymentalnych.

This article surveys a range of European audio features and documentaries selected for the prestigious Prix Europa 2018. Works critiqued come from Italy, UK, France, Slovakia, Poland, Germany, Czech Republic. the Netherlands and Belgium. The winner was The Upside Down,made by Gianluca Stazi and Giuseppe Casu and produced by Radio Televisione Italiana, RAI Radio 3 and Tratti Documentari. The jury described it as a “timeless story about the dignity and spirituality of work. Patiently, it leads us deep into the recesses of the natural world and the human soul. We heard a real musical experience composed of natural sounds and peoples’ memories, all told with great tenderness. The documentary turned our preconceptions of this typical social subject upside down with its sense of humanity and poetry. It was a big story from a hole in the mountain”.

This article consists of two parts. In the first one, I analyse relations between a reportage and a feature. Differences can be found in the way these notions are defined by scholars in Poland and in Western Europe. Polish radio documentaries are based on authenticity, while in a feature the truth intermingles with fiction. My Lobotomy, by David Isay and Piya Kochhar, serves as an example of a work which presents both authentic characters and some fictional elements. In the second part of the article I focused on the analysis of this American feature. As far as I am concerned, what makes the work most interesting is the relationship between the protagonist’s authentic and spontaneous reactions and the read out narrative sequences

Książka jest poświęcona gatunkowi radiowemu feature zbliżonemu do reportażu artystycznego. Autorka prezentuje stan badań, precyzuje terminologię, wyznacza granice omawianego gatunku i jego odmian. Kreśli historię feature’a i pokrewnych form wypowiedzi, odwołując się zarówno do przykładów polskich, jak i obcych, głównie zachodnioeuropejskich – czytelnik znajdzie tu m.in. podrozdział o roli reportażu artystycznego w programie Radia Wolna Europa. Publikacja zawiera też analizę takich kategorii, jak narrator, aktor i elementy „słuchowiskowe” w twórczości z gatunku feature.

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Opracowania dotyczące feature’a w polskiej literaturze przedmiotu są właściwie nieliczne. Nie chciałbym dokonywać porównań wartościujących, odnoszę jednak wrażenie, że książka Natalii Kowalskiej jest nie tylko wyraźniej ukierunkowana w swych celach i wywodach, lecz także pełniejsza, obszerniejsza, bardziej wyczerpująca. Dla „utwierdzenia” gatunku na gruncie polskim wydaje się niezwykle pożyteczna i na chwilę obecną trudna do zastąpienia. […] Pod wieloma względami jest dziełem pionierskim i w zakresie podjętego tematu stanie się bezsprzecznie ważnym punktem odniesienia.

Z recenzji prof. dr. hab. Jana Tomkowskiego

The main aim of this article is to describe the nature of radio experiment, its genre pattern and relations with modern radio art and to define the ruling principles of this form. Literature Theory, journalism genres (both press and radio), genre's pattern theory will be the referring points for this study. Radio experiment can be understood as an autonomic radio genre, even though it is a very complex and internally diverse form. Experimental forms have been always outside of the mainstream radio research although they had an influence on the development of radio genres in the past and their contemporary form. This article describes the matters of structure, aesthetics and non-aesthetics in the field of audio experiment