1999
(Untitled) Swisscom, 1999

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

The permanent Sound Work commissioned by the Swiss telephone company for a one hundred meter long corridor in their headquarters outside of Bern in 1999.

'In our daily lives, our eye and ear are constantly working together as a closely linked team to form our perception of where we are -- our sense of place.  

Traditionally practitioners in the plastic arts have adjusted this perception with vision, forming with shape and color. I on the other hand work with our sense of hearing. 

The essence of what I do when I build a work with sound lies in the nature of the sounds I place in a given context.  How they relate to the expected and their inherent sound character in the work's specific location are what generates the new 'place' of the work. Unlike music where the sound is the artwork, here sound is used as a subtle tool to carve a new perception of place.

The process of building a work of this kind is one of fine tuning done by ear on site. The work's conceptin takes place as I build its sounds in the site itself when the work's physical components are in place -- when the stone is there to be carved.

As a general principle when working in a public sphere I use a level of subtlety which leaves the passerby free to notice the work but does not impose it.'

Max Neuhaus