Max Neuhaus

Passage

The Passage works are situated in spaces where the physical movement of the listener through the space to reach a destination is inherent. They imply an active role on the part of listeners, who set a static sound structure into motion for themselves by passing through it.

Neuhaus distinguishes between a series of works concentrated on "place" and those where "passage" is the determining element.  In the former, the sound field, the site is fixed, as in his Times Square, an unmarked block of sound on a pedestrian island in New York City's Times Square

The "passage" works, on the other hand, are situated in spaces which are longer---a corridor, a bridge---and which imply the physical movement of the listener through space to reach a destination.  

These "passage" works, then, imply an active role on the part of the listener, who "sets a piece into motion" so to speak by walking (or passing) through it.  It also implies a recognition, on the part of this person, of the changing quality of a particular space.  The difference between sound zones in a Neuhaus aural topography, is crucial to an understanding of how sound can construct (and deconstruct) a space. 


Sound works:

Drive In Music, 1967

A sound Installation for people in Automobiles, Max Neuhaus 1966
 (first Drive In sound installation) 

'The first work that could be called an installation was actually entitled Drive-In Music. I had the opportunity – I was invited to a centre for contemporary music in a city outside New York City in Buffalo, New York, and because I was well-known as a performer I was given a certain amount of latitude, although they really couldn’t understand what I was talking about when I proposed making a sound work for people in automobiles that they would hear over their car radio as they drove along a certain street. The idea of car - in many American cities, nobody walks; everybody drives, so it was a way of dealing in fact, with the public at large. I realized it with seven low-power radio transmitters, each one transmitted a different sound. I created a topography of sound by configuring their antennae into different shapes. So I literally shaped sound in space; I made a topography out of sound which people drove through. Each listener exposed its elements for himself through his car radio as he drove through it. You could drive through it in two directions, you could drive through it fast, you could drive through it slowly, you could stop… putting sound in place and putting time in the listeners’ hands.'mn

hans-ulrich-obrist-interview-with-max-neuhaus-2005







Paris Métro Project, 1982


Neuhaus initiated discussions with RATP for work in 1973. In 1983 the RATP committed itself to the project by providing funding for planning. With this, Neuhaus worked in the site at various times over the next five years and developed the basic concepts of the work.

 After three years the Ministry of Culture joined the project in 1986 with a promise to provide a third of the budget if additional partners could be found. This was accomplished in 1987. In 1988 when the Ministry failed to provide its promised share, Neuhaus finally abandoned the project. 

In 1983 the RATP and a sponser from the private sector, agreed to provide one third of the budget each. At this poiont the ministry, realizing its worst fears had come to fruition In1988, when the Ministry failed to provide its promised share, Neuhaus finally abandoned the project.


 Sound Works, Volume I, Inscription


Elevetor, 1982

Elevator - the sense I want here is one of a ride - sonic ride

Sound work references: Open form proposal
-Total Building, La Defense, Paris
-Medical Center, Chicago.


(Untitled) Swisscom, 1999

Sound Work Location: Worblaufen-Bern, Switzerland, Dimensions: 6 x 6 x 100 meters
Extant: 1999–Present
Collection: Swisscom, Worblaufen-Bern, Switzerland