1978
Image: Max Neuhaus, Sound Text Siren
In the 1980's Neuhaus took on the problem of redesigning the sounds of emergency-vehicle sirens. The project's focuses were to make sounds that were locatable in an urban environment so people would know what to do when they heard one, to allow drivers of emergency vehicles to hear one another when their sirens were on so they wouldn't run into each other, and to make sounds we could live with – which would have authority without being authoritarian.
sirens,by Max Neuhaus Text in an edition at 66 East, 18 March, 22 April 2007
Siren Score Art Idea Nearly Passed On By.” Houston Post, Hartford, June 15, 1978
SIREN - AURAL DESIGN by Max Neuhaus TEXT 1987.
International Herald Tribune, "The Siren Song of Sound Sculptor Max Neuhaus", Paris, April 8-9, 1989
SIRENS by Max Neuhaus TXT, 1991
(With Addenda 1993)
Le Monde, Max Neuhaus, sculpteur de son s et de sirènes, by Harry Bellet, Maedi 7 Aout 2001
Image: Photo Max Neuhaus, Callng All Cars
Photo Credit: Fred Mertz. NYT Pictures
SirenProject.Propose to Paris.PDF
United Patent and Trademark Office 2007.pdf
The text and other elements (illustrations, imported files) are “All rights reserved”, unless otherwise stated.
Bibliography of papers on Localisation of Sound and Sirens:
First published in Zeitgleich [English, German] (Vienna: Triton, 1994).
(2) In 1991 Neuhaus was awarded the first patent for a sound as a result of his siren project; see "Siren - Aural Design" [Dutch, English], Kunst + Museum Journaal (Amsterdam), vol. 4, no. 6 (1993), and "Siren" [German] and "Listen" [German], Welt auf töneren Füssen (Göttingen), Schriftenreihe Forum, Band 2 (1994).
(3) 'muzak' is the generic term for background music in the US.