1978
municipal emergency sirens.
The "Passed On By" in the title refers to the skepticism of city officials in Hartford who initially struggled to classify the project. It was caught between being a utilitarian safety upgrade and a public art installation.
The "Siren Score": Neuhaus pitched the idea as an "aural topography" for the city. He argued that current sirens were acoustically "violent" and difficult to locate. His "score" was a series of sounds designed to be easily pinpointed by the human ear, reducing panic and accidents at intersections Hartford Courant Archives.
The article captures a unique moment where Neuhaus’s work with HEAR INC. moved into the realm of urban engineering. He sought to prove that "artistic" intuition about sound could solve a practical civic problem that engineers had failed to address.