2008
Max Neuhaus - Sound work realization processes
Site selection
Ideally the commissioner invites me to look over the given area for the work's site. This is not just choosing a location for the work in my case. Because the site is what I actually make the work out of, it is the first step in the work's creation.
Usually I spend one or two days reconnoitering the given area and in the end offer the commissioner several possibilities. It is important that we come to an agreement rather than that I simply dictate it -- his local point of view is one dimension of the site. It is also important that he doesn't simply dictate a site to me as his reference is usually from a past work, while I am searching for something new.
A common misconception about site is that because these works utilize sound, they should be placed in the vicinity of venues for music -- the lobbies of concert halls, etc. These works use sound in a completely different way than music. Placing them in the context of music only confuses the issue.
The determination of the site fixes the scale of the work and allows costs to be estimated. Thus site selection is the beginning of the work's proposal phase where, with a propsal fee, an operations schedule and budget estimate are developed and presented to the commissioner along with a proposal drawing.
Sound source design
Building a space with sound is very much more than simply 'playing' a sound there. I have to construct sound fields which articulate the space I am building for the listener's ear. For each work I must also find a way to 'embed' sound invisibly into its site: the sources of sound cannot be visible -- in the context of sculpture, if they are, they become the work.
These things require the design, in conjunction with the site, of specialized speaker systems or sound sources for each work. Once this has been completed and a prototype tested at the site, the work's costs become even more precise as the number of sound channels, number and type of speaker elements in each sound source and the necessary construction and installation materials and procedures are known.
If this phase can be integrated into the construction or renovation of a building there are great advantages in cost and also the possibilities for the design of the sound sources. For example in a recent work for a pedestrian bridge, Suspended Sound Line, it was possible to build the sound sources invisibly into the main structural beams of the bridge because I was brought into the project early. An invisible change which costs nothing at an early stage can allow me to do things which would be impossible later on when the design and construction have been completed.
In my experience, architects are relieved to work with an artist whose pieces are invisible. They are then sure to avoid the conflict which sometimes occurs later on with the confrontation of a visual artwork and their building.
Sound construction
The sound I add to a given site is not the work: it is what creates the work. The work is the result of the interaction of the sound and its site. The site's sounds and its character -- acoustic, visual, social -- are the elements I transform into the work.
I can only build the work out of its site by constructing its sound at the site.The last step in realization begins once the sound sources have been constructed and installed at the site. In order to have complete freedom in constructing the work's sound, a powerful computer sound-synthesis system is temporarily placed where the work's final electronics will be installed and connected to the sound sources. A remote control system is also installed so that this synthesis system can be completely controlled remotely at the site itself.
Because of the special advantages computer systems have for shaping sound, I began using them in my work in the late seventies. From the beginning, though, I felt it important to have interfaces which allowed me to shape the work's sound by hand and ear rather than through calculation. I began developing such interfaces then and I continue to do so today.
This sound construction phase on site lasts between five and ten days.
When the sound is completed, the sound-synthesis system is removed; and the final electronics -- a simpler, highly reliable digital playback system with the sounds 'burned' into its memory -- are installed.
Once initiated, these works remain on twenty-four hours a day. This is not only for technical reasons (the repeated expansion and contraction of electronic components as they heat and cool when turned on and off daily is one of the major causes of failure) but also has an aesthetic basis.
Throughout our lives sound has always been the result of an event, something which happens, which begins and ends. Communication with sound has always been bound by time. Meaning in speech and music appears only as their sound events unfold word by word, phrase by phrase, from moment to moment. The startling fundamental idea of these works is the opposite: to remove sound from time and instead have it form an entity. To turn these works on and off forces them back into time, turning them back into events.
Works in museums
My sound works do not generally fit into the exhibition format. If I make a work out of an exhibition space, the work, as it cannot be relocated without duplicating its site, is most often destroyed at the close of the exhibition.
Therefore when I am commissioned to make a work for the collection of a museum, it is important I find a site which will not be used as an exhibition space. The placement of a visual artwork inside a sound work still results in an unwanted mixture of the two.
As a permanent entity in a museum's collection the sound work differs in important ways from a visual work. The sound work is invisible, subtle to the point of requiring focus to experience and localized; instead of always confronting the museum visitor, it is only there for those who actually choose to be in it.
Maintenance and documentation
The electronic systems which generate these works are inherently reliable, made to professional standards rather than those of consumer electronics. The only moving parts in an installation are the speaker elements themselves. These are always used at only a small fraction of their rated power.
Many think of electronics as inherently short-lived material for an artwork, and certainly it is much different than bronze or stone. In fact, though, by realizing a sound work through an electronic system one makes it indestructible.
Whereas a painting or sculpture can never be recreated no matter how much documentation is available, the results of an electronic process are, on the other hand, completely quantifiable. This means it will always be possible to build the work from documentation alone, even with the completely different machines of the future.
Documentation is provided with each sound work which allows it to be constructed once again at any future date even in the case where it has been completely destroyed.