Sound Work Location: Botanical Garden, St. Paul, Minnesota, Dimensions: rotunda 30 x 20 meters
Image: Max Neuhaus, Drawing, 1993
Designed for the space by artist Max Neuhaus, the installation was placed in the central rotunda of the Conservatory. The piece, which involved an elaborate system of electronic music, virtually filled the space with gradually modulating "sound shapes" - tactile music that surrounded the listener in subtle tones.
The installation marked Neuhaus' first exploration of a greenhouse space. The piece was a permanent addition to the Conservatory. Since 1965, Neuhaus, a leading artist of the sonic environment, has worked outside the realm of conventional concert hall situations, focusing his attention on new sonic situations and sources. In the process of largely creating and developing the "sound installation" concept, Neuhaus changed many preconceived notions about when and where music can occur.
Swift-moving Sound Shapes
"It was a very subtle thing yet also complex and powerful. The illusion was complete – something moved through the wall. If you were talking you wouldn’t hear it, but if you were silent – you didn’t see it but your ear saw this thing go across the room. Your perception was that the shape had moved. Explosive, but contradicting the explosiveness because it was so quiet. Aural lightning flashes, but very subtle and soft."
Max Neuhaus
Image: Max Neuhaus poster, 1980
Sound Work opens June 5, 1980. Organized by WAC and commissioned by the city of St. Paul, a permanent sound installation will be opened prior to New Music America in the Como Park Conservatory.
'His most recent installations have made use of electronically synthesized sounds, for which he has developed an elegant computerized system for manipulating and storing tone patterns. The system he is using for the siren project is modified from one created in 1980 for a St. Paul (Minnesota) Botanical Garden installation, and includes a video monitor on which the sounds can literally be drawn with an electric marker'.