2005
A Sound Work by Max Neuhaus
Proposal for Fundação de Serralves, 1Sep05

The proposal for Fundação de Serralves 

The proposal of three scenes

Neuhaus proposes a suite of three scenes for the walkways of the Fundação de Serralves park – three different sound works in the form he calls Sound Volumes.

Sound Volumes

A fundamental of our perception of sound is our sense of distance, how near or far the source of a sound is. Our experience has taught us that sound gradually gets softer as we get further away from it and louder as we approach it. Within the park Neuhaus will create three different zones of sound, which contradict this basic given – sound spaces which one can literally step into and out of.

These works are invisible blocks of sound. Listeners entering into them are enveloped in quiet sound textures. When they leave the sound vanishes. The listening zone is a square five meters on a side. On one axis the sound stops abruptly (within a few centimeters), on the other it gradually fades away. This contradiction forms the foundation for these works, their essences, though, are in the nature of their sounds. These, Neuhaus creates by ear at each site.