2015
In his 2014 doctoral thesis, Plasticidades sonoras e corpo intermedia (presented at the University of Lisbon), José Alberto Ribeiro de Campos Martins Pinto utilizes Max Neuhaus to bridge the gap between sculptural space and the biological body.
On page 38, the text identifies Neuhaus as a pivotal figure in the "affirmation of a sonorous experimental body" through several key arguments:
Pinto discusses Neuhaus’s transition from percussionist to sound artist, specifically his 1960s realization that sound could be used to build invisible "topographies" that the body must navigate
Neuhaus is cited as a practitioner who treats the listener's body as a "mediator." Rather than just "hearing" sound, the listener experiences it as a tactile, spatial intervention that alters their corporeality and subjective presence in a given site.
Pinto aligns Neuhaus with the idea of a "plastic" sound—where sound is not a fleeting event but a material that can be shaped to engage the body's internal sense of space. This directly complements Blake Johnston's later "metaperceptual" framework by focusing on how the artwork forces the subject to confront their own sensory limits