Networks

My Networks are virtual aural architectures which propose the self-evolution of new musics. Their premise is a form of music-making which remains now only in societies untouched by modern man. Rather than something to be listened to, music in these cultures is an activity open to the public at large - a dialogue with sound rather than a performance. I believe this to be the original impulse for music in mankind. I am interested in reinstating it.

My first Network was realized almost forty years ago. Public Supply (1966) would have used the internet if it had existed then but, as it didn’t, I had to invent a network with what was at hand. I combined a radio station with the telephone network to create what we now call a virtual space - a public two-way aural space, twenty miles in diameter encompassing New York City. Any inhabitant could enter into a live dialogue with sound by simply making a telephone call. The result was a live collage where I acted as a moderator balancing the levels of the introverted with those of the extroverted.

As I continued with these ideas I began to implement two concepts which have proved important. One was to have the sounds phoned in activate instruments, instruments played by the voice. The other was to remove myself from the role of moderator and implement this function as an autonomous system. This was accomplished in Radio Net (1977) for the whole of the United States. I formed the National Public Radio network with its 190 radio stations into a vast cross country instrument played by callers’ sounds autonomously.

After this I decided to try to move on to a global scale and create something within which a multilingual public could interact. Even more importantly, though, I wanted to realize something inherent in my original vision. I wanted to go beyond the radio event and create an entity: something there twenty-four hours a day ready to be joined by anyone at any time. Current sound technology and the internet have reached a point where the realization of these concepts is finally possible. As a result Auracle will be launched this October.

Auracle builds upon these past networks. It is a global entity for live sound interaction available twenty-four hours a day: a networked sound instrument, controlled by the voice, played and heard over the internet at http://www.auracle.org.

Max Neuhaus, June 2004

Sound works:

Public Supply, 1966 - 1973

Public Supply I, WBAI, New York, 1966, Radio Station WBAI New York City -- First broadcast work.
Dimensions: 20 miles in diameter, Extant: October 8, 1966 8:30 - 10:00 PM -
'I consider the Public Supplys and the other Networks as direct extensions of my activities in music.' Max Neuhaus

Telephone Access 1968© Copyright Estate Max Neuhaus

I installed ten telephone lines at the station and asked people to call in during a two-hour period with whatever sounds they wanted. It created a live sound collage made with the participation of anybody within a twenty-mile radius the ten million people who were living there. These Networks gradually progressed into a series of radio/telephone events, in different cities. In the middle of the seventies. Max Neuhaus

Radio Net, 1977

These Networks gradually progressed into a series of radio/telephone events, in different cities. In the middle of the seventies I realized one for the whole of the USA with two hundred radio stations and five cities where people called into. I made huge trans-continental loops to transform their sounds.It was called Radio Net. Max Neuhaus

Audium, 1980

The concept of Audium dates from 1978. First published in German in: Vom Verschwinden der Ferne: Telekommunikation und Kunst, Dumont, Cologne, 1990.“all the activities we engage in to produce sound – from speaking a language to the way we play an instrument and how we compose – are part of a circular process” Max Neuhaus

Auracle, 2004

An internet-based architecture for live audio interaction worldwide with participation open to the public at large. http://www.auracle.org/, a networked sound instrument, controlled by the voice and played over the Internet