1977
(Untitled) Documenta VI, 1977

Image: Max Neuhaus poster

The untitled contribution for the1977 Documenta 6 in Kassel was situated in a clearing, where stood a tree. Hidden in the tree were eight highly directional speakers emitting clicking sounds that seemed to spring from the grass by way of sound reflection. The clicks were reminiscent of “the sounds of stepping on a twig, or a drop of water falling from a leaf.” 

They might have gone unnoticed as part of the naturally occurring acoustic phenomena, but their persistent bouncing from one spot to another provided an adequate threshold to trigger attentiveness by the visitor. “The clicks were separated by a second or two of silence, and also had physical space between them. This pointed out, emphasized, directed attention around the clearing in a way that created the sense of this place."

 Like the work for Documenta 6 and the one for the botanical garden?

Yes, in general.  But with those you had time to take it in; each thing that happened drew your attention because it was single and slow, a slow pace - something happened, then nothing happened, then it happened over there.  Here the event was much more complex; it happened at about the same speed, but the event was elaborate in timbre and shape.

This sense of quickness here, is it done by passing things between speakers?

Yes, but in a complex way, not just one speaker to another, but different configurations of speakers to other configurations of speakers.  That's what gave it a shape.  Instead of being a point, it was a grouping of speakers; they made a shape in the room.  Your perception was that the shape had moved.

That's a new kind of shaping of sound; this is a moving shape.

Exactly, it's dynamic.  Explosive, but contradicting the explosiveness because it was so soft.  Even though it was explosive, it didn't threaten you as an explosion - like aural lightning flashes, but very subtle and soft.

Max Neuhaus, in conversation, Archive Max Neuhaus Estate