1968
In his June 16, 1968, article for the New York Times, "The Listener is the Composer," critic Theodore Strongin explores Max Neuhaus’s radical shift toward interactive and environmental sound.
Strongin highlights Neuhaus’s philosophy that the audience should no longer be a silent recipient of a "finished" work. Instead, through works like Public Supply, the listener becomes the "composer" by interacting with the sound system.
Public Supply I: The article discusses Neuhaus’s use of the WBAI radio station and telephone lines, where he allowed the public to call in and contribute sounds to a live, shifting electronic mix. This was a direct move away from his Billboard-featured recordings of Stockhausen.
Acoustic Democracy: Strongin notes that by using "everyday" technology like the telephone, Neuhaus was democratizing the avant-garde, a theme echoed in Susan Braudy’s "Underground World" piece in New York Magazine that same year.