Max Neuhaus

2012
Woods, Nicole. “Object/Poems: Alison Knowles’s Feminist Archite(x)ture,” Xtra 15, No. 1 (Fall 2012): 7-25.

In her article 
“Object/Poems: Alison Knowles’s Feminist Archite(x)ture” (2012), Nicole Woods examines the intermedial and feminist dimensions of Alison Knowles's work. Within this context, Max Neuhaus is identified as a key collaborator in one of Knowles’s most significant architectural and technological projects.

Key Connection: The House of Dust

The primary intersection between Woods's analysis and Max Neuhaus involves the iconic computerized poem,  (1967), and its subsequent physical manifestation:

  • Aural Collaboration: For the physical structure of —a massive, computer-generated architectural environment—Knowles invited Max Neuhaus to contribute to the experience of the work.
  • Acoustic Architecture: Neuhaus’s contribution involved the use of sound to define and alter the perception of the physical space. Woods highlights how this collaboration merged Knowles's interest in computer-generated chance with Neuhaus’s expertise in psychoacoustics and fluid dynamics.
  • Intermedial Synthesis: The article frames Neuhaus as part of a network of experimentalists (including Dick Higgins and the Something Else Press circle) who were dissolving the boundaries between poetry, sculpture, and sound.