Józef Patkowski – professor of music, acoustician, composer and long-time director of the Polish Composers Union – was the founder and the director of the studio. After him, electroacoustic engineer Krzysztof Szlifirski was the studio’s senior figure. It was a pioneering institution throughout the entire Eastern Bloc, as Patkowski had travelled to similar facilities located all over Western Europe – in Cologne, Paris, Graveson, and Milan. Even though the studio produced its own projects, it wasn’t its main goal. Among other things, it created sound effects for radio broadcasts, music for theatres, filmmakers, and choreographers. The studio was located in the famous Black Room, designed by Zofia and Oskar Hansen. The 6-by-6-metre room was square, and its walls were made up of black and red rotating panels – one side being a flat surface (to reflect sound) and the other perforated (to absorb sound). The Black Room was itself an Open Form experience.
Jakub Koźniewski, one of APPARATUM’s authors, says:
Hansen’s minimalistic style really inspired us. We don’t currently have to deal with storage issues, as we can store all our data on computers, which doesn’t take up a lot of space. Yet during the times of the Polish Radio Experimental Studio they had to fit a large amount of equipment into a very limited area. Hansen came up with the idea of a framework that could fit different elements of the studio’s machinery. It’s not a coincidence that our installation is black and white: it’s a reference to the studio's distinct monochromatic style. The generators that produce sound refer to the style and arrangement of the Black Room.