Warsaw-based art collective panGenerator has unveiled Apparatum, an installation inspired by the Polish radio experimental studio – one of the first studios in the world producing electroacoustic music. The installation comprises analog sound generators, based on magnetic tape and optical components controlled via graphic score composed with a digital interface.
Apparatum draws inspiration musically and graphically from the ‘Symphony – Electronic Music’ composed by Bogusław Schaeffer. Bogusław Schaeffer conceived his own visual language of symbols that conveyed the cues for the sound engineer responsible for the production of the piece.
The physical form is inspired by the general aesthetics of the Studio’s famous “Black Room” designed by Oskar Hansen. The electroacoustic generators and filters were arranged in a modular fashion inside two steel frames – the construction element that panGenerator has referred to in the design. Magnetic tape was the primary medium used in the polish radio experimental studio. the creators also use two types of ‘tape samplers’ – two 2-track loops and three one-shot linear tape samplers. To obtain noise and basic tones they utilize purely analog optical generators based on spinning discs with graphical patterns.
