1986
MAX NEUHAUS - SOUND INSTALLATIONS, TECHNIQUES AND PROCESSES
THE WORK FOR THE BELL GALLERY AT BROWN UNIVERSITY,
WITH ASIDES AND ALLUSIONS Copyright Max Neuhaus 1988
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ALTHOUGH MOST PEOPLE AREN'T AWARE OF IT, SOUND IS AS IMPORTANT AN ASPECT OF HOW WE PERCEIVE A PLACE AS THE WAY IT LOOKS. WE OF COURSE SENSE THE SIZE OF A SPACE WITH OUR EARS AS WELL AS OUR EYES AND OUR SENSE OF POSITION AND MOTION MAY COME FROM AURAL AS WELL AS VISUAL CUES. PERHAPS MORE INTERESTING THAN THESE PSYCHOACOUSTIC PHENOMENA THOUGH, IS THAT THE FEELING OF THE BASIC NATURE OF A PLACE AND OURSELVES WITHIN IT IS DETERMINED AS MUCH BY THE SOUND AS SIGHT.
MANY OF THESE INSTALLATIONS HAVE BEEN IN PUBLIC PLACES, ON THE STREET OR AS PART OF TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS. I AM ALWAYS SURPRISED WHEN PEOPLE ASK ME WHY I AM INTERESTED IN WORKING IN SUCH PLACES; AS IF THESE PLACES WERE SOMEHOW UNWORTHY OF SERIOUS AESTHETIC ENDEAVORS. THE IDEA BEING, I SUPPOSE, THAT UNLESS WE CAREFULLY PREPARE AND MAINTAIN SPECIAL PLACES LIKE MUSEUMS AND CONCERT HALLS, AND EDUCATE AUDIENCES IN HOW TO PERCEIVE WORKS OF ART WITHIN THEM, THE AESTHETIC EXPERIENCE CAN NOT OCCUR.
I FEEL THE OPPOSITE, I.E. THAT THE AESTHETIC EXPERIENCE IS NATURAL TO THE HUMAN BEING, A PHENOMENON OF LIVING, AND FURTHER THAT IT IS HIGHLY UNIQUE TO EACH INDIVIDUAL. BY LIMITING IT TO ONE SINGULAR APPROACH OR PARTICULAR KIND OF PLACE, WE HAVE CODIFIED AND CLASSIFIED IT TO THE POINT WHERE WE BEGIN TO ENDANGER THE POSSIBILITY OF ITS OCCURRENCE.
THE IMPETUS FOR THE FIRST SOUND INSTALLATION WAS AN INTEREST IN WORKING WITH A PUBLIC AT LARGE, AND INSERTING WORKS INTO THEIR DAILY DOMAIN IN SUCH A WAY THAT PEOPLE COULD FIND THEM IN THEIR OWN TIME AND ON THEIR OWN TERMS. DISGUISING THEM WITHIN THEIR ENVIRONMENTS IN SUCH A WAY THAT PEOPLE DISCOVERED THEM FOR THEMSELVES AND TOOK POSSESSION OF THEM -- LEAD BY THEIR CURIOSITY INTO LISTENING.
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WORKING IN THE CONTEXT OF A MUSEUM OR GALLERY LIKE THE ONE AT BROWN IS ALWAYS A CHALLENGE -- I HAVE TO FIND A WAY OF RESTORING THE SPACE TO ITS NATURAL STATE AS A ROOM.
THE STARTING POINT FOR A WORK IS THE SPACE ITSELF -- THE SOUND WHICH ALREADY EXISTS THERE, THE NATURE OF IT'S ACOUSTIC AND IT'S SOCIAL CONTEXT.
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MY FIRST STEP IN MAKING A WORK IS USUALLY TO DEFINE THE SOUND SOURCES OR THE WAY SOUND ENTERS SPACE. I HAVE ALWAYS FOUND THE LOUDSPEAKER TO BE A RATHER UNINTERESTING SOUND SOURCE. I USE IT SIMPLY AS A TRANSDUCER; A MEANS OF TRANSLATING THE SOUND FROM ELECTRICAL TO ACOUSTIC FORM. RATHER THAN USING SOUND DIRECTLY FROM A LOUDSPEAKER I USUALLY USE THE SURFACES OF THE ENVIRONMENT THEMSELVES AS THE SOURCES OF SOUND.
THE MOST INTERESTING ACOUSTIC SHAPES IN THE BELL GALLERY WERE THE CORNERS. THERE WERE MANY - ROOM DIVIDERS FORMED TWELVE EXTRA CORNERS IN THE SPACE. ( ILLUSTRATION 1 ) BY POINTING SPEAKERS FROM THE CEILING (AT AN ANGLE WHERE THEY COULDN'T BE HEARD DIRECTLY) INTO EACH, THE CORNERS THEMSELVES, WITH THEIR COMPLEX PATTERNS OF REFLECTION AND ACOUSTIC SHADOWS, BECAME THE PERCEIVED SOURCES OF SOUND. SIX SYNTHESIZERS WERE CONNECTED TO DIFFERENT GROUPINGS OF THE SIXTEEN SOURCES SO THAT EACH SYNTHESIZER FORMED A THREE DIMENSIONAL SHAPE COMPOSED OF TWO OR THREE CORNERS IN THE SPACE.
I HAVE ALWAYS USED ELECTRONICS TO GENERATE THE SOUNDS OF MY INSTALLATIONS. IT IS SIMPLY THE BEST "PAINT" WE HAVE FOR SOUND TODAY. THE ARGUMENTS ABOUT "ACOUSTIC" AS OPPOSED TO ELECTRONIC SOUND SOURCES SEEM FALSE TO ME. SOUND IS NOT LIKE WOOD, -- WE CAN HAVE REAL WOOD AND SYNTHETIC WOOD. SOUND IS SOUND AND UNLESS ONE BYPASSES THE EARS (PERHAPS AN INTRIGUING IDEA) A SOUND GENERATED ELECTRONICALLY IS JUST AS REAL AS A SOUND MADE BY A VIOLIN. VIOLINS AND PIANOS DON'T GROW ON TREES, BUT ARE IN FACT RATHER ANTIQUE SYNTHESIZERS FROM THE MECHANICAL AGE.
I THINK THE DISTINCTION WAS MADE ORIGINALLY BECAUSE OF THE PRIMITIVE NATURE OF EARLY ELECTRONIC SOUND SOURCES, SOMETHING WHICH IS NO LONGER TRUE. IT CONTINUES TODAY AS AN ARGUMENT ABOUT CONTROL BETWEEN THE TECHNICIAN AND THE MUSICIAN. THE USE OF THE TERM ELECTRONIC MUSIC AS A MEANS OF CLASSIFICATION BECOMES MEANINGLESS WHEN WE REALIZE THAT ALL RECORDED MUSIC HAS BECOME ELECTRONIC MUSIC BY THE ACT OF RECORDING IT.
FOR ME, THE TRANSITION OF MOVING FROM USING "ACOUSTIC" SOUND SOURCES TO ELECTRONIC ONES WAS A GRADUAL ONE. IT BEGAN WHILE I WAS STILL WORKING AS A PERCUSSIONIST. KNOWING NOTHING ABOUT ELECTRONICS, I BECAME INTRIGUED WITH THE POSSIBILITIES OF EXTENDING THE TONE COLOR OF THE TRADITIONAL INSTRUMENTS I WAS WORKING WITH. AT THAT TIME THERE WERE FEW ELECTRONIC SOUND MAKING OR PROCESSING DEVICES AVAILABLE, SO I BEGAN TEACHING MYSELF ABOUT ELECTRONIC CIRCUITS WHICH COULD MAKE AND CHANGE SOUNDS.
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FOR FAN MUSIC (1968) I BUILT EIGHT ELECTRO-MECHANICAL SOLAR SOUND SOURCES. VENTILATING FANS PLACED BETWEEN PHOTOCELLS AND THE SUN GENERATED A SOUND WAVEFORM WHICH CHANGED IN TONE COLOR AS THE SUN MOVED ACROSS THE SKY, AND DISAPPEARED AS IT SET. THE WORK WAS MADE FOR AN URBAN TERRAIN, THE MULTI-LEVELED ROOFTOPS OF FOUR ADJOINING BUILDINGS IN MANHATTAN. THE EIGHT SOURCES WERE DISPERSED ON DIFFERENT LEVELS TO FORM AN AURAL TOPOGRAPHY TO MATCH THE PHYSICAL ONE. (ILLUSTRATION 2)
I WAS INTERESTED IN WORKING WITH GROUPS OF INDEPENDENT SOUND SOURCES. THE IDEAS ABOUT STEREO AND QUADROPHONIC SOUND SEEMED TO HAVE MORE TO DO WITH RECREATION THAN CREATION. THE REAL SOUND WORLD IS, IN FACT, FORMED BY A MULTITUDE OF SOUND SOURCES EACH ONE CONTRIBUTING A SMALL PART OF THE WHOLE. FOR ME, SPACE IS AS IMPORTANT A SOUND DIMENSION AS THE SOUND ITSELF. DURING THE YEARS UP UNTIL 1979, I BUILT A SPECIAL SET OF SOUND SOURCES FOR EACH WORK. THE MOST COMPLEX OF THESE BEING THE PERMANENT WORK IN THE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART IN CHICAGO, WITH THIRTY SOUND SOURCES. (ILLUSTRATION 3)
AS MY WORK BECAME CONCERNED WITH LARGER GROUPS OF SOUND SOURCES, I BECAME INTERESTED IN COMPUTERS AS A MEANS TO CONTROL ARRAYS OF SOUND SYNTHESIZERS -- USING THE COMPUTER TO EDIT, STORE, RETRIEVE AND COMPARE SOUND STRUCTURES FOR MANY INDEPENDENT SOUND SOURCES.
MANY APPLICATIONS OF COMPUTERS USE THE MACHINE FOR ANALYSIS, SIMULATION AND MODELING, UTILIZING THEIR FACILITY AND FLEXIBILITY AS A MEANS OF DESIGN AND PLANNING FOR A FUTURE PHYSICAL REALITY. BY USING A COMPUTER TO GENERATE SOUND, THOUGH, ONE IS AT THE SAME TIME ALSO ABLE TO CREATE THAT PHYSICAL REALITY, A VERY GREAT ADVANTAGE. -- THE REALITY IS AS MALLEABLE AS A MODEL.
THE EARLY DAYS OF MAKING SOUND WORKS WITH COMPUTERS WERE PLAGUED WITH MANY DIFFICULTIES, THE MAJOR ONE BEING THE INABILITY TO HEAR WHAT YOU WERE DOING. THE MACHINE TOOK SO LONG TO CALCULATE THE SOUND THAT IN MANY INSTITUTIONS THE COMBINATION OF COMPUTING TIME AND BUREAUCRACY MEANT THAT IT TOOK A WEEK AFTER YOU HAD MADE SOMETHING BEFORE YOU COULD HEAR IT.
THE MOST POWERFUL MEANS WE HAVE OF DIRECTING THE CREATION OF SOUND IS THE EAR IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE HUMAN MIND. TO TRY TO MAKE A WORK WITHOUT HEARING IS ANALOGOUS TO TRYING TO DRIVE A CAR WITHOUT SEEING. THE CURRENT STATE OF TECHNOLOGY STILL CAN'T MEASURE THINGS WHICH THE EAR CAN HEAR AND THE SCIENCE OF PSYCHOACOUSTICS HAS ONLY BEGUN TO SKETCH THE OUTLINES OF WHAT SOUND MEANS TO US. NEVERTHELESS, THIS INABILITY TO HEAR WHAT ONE WAS DOING SEEMS TO HAVE SPAWNED SEVERAL GENERATIONS OF COMPOSERS WHO NEGATED THE EAR IN FAVOR OF THE RATHER LIMITED, ALBEIT PRECISE, DESCRIPTION OF REALITY PROVIDED BY SCIENCE AND THE LANGUAGE OF MATHEMATICS. PAGE 4
THE CURRENT CROP OF SOUND SYNTHESIZERS HAS MOVED THE ABILITY TO USE COMPUTERS TO WORK WITH SOUND, OUT OF THE INSTITUTION AND INTO THE HANDS OF INDIVIDUAL COMPOSERS. BECAUSE THESE MACHINES ARE DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY TO MAKE SOUND ONE CAN QUITE EASILY HEAR WHAT ONE IS DOING.
THE WORK AT BROWN USED THE FIRST VERSION OF A COMPUTER CONTROLLED SOUND SYNTHESIZER ARRAY WHICH I BUILT TO USE AS A BASIC TOOL FOR NOT ONE WORK, BUT MANY. THE SYSTEM, FIRST USED FOR THE WORK IN THE BOTANICAL GARDEN IN ST PAUL IN 1980, CONSISTED OF SIXTY-FOUR INDEPENDENT SYNTHESIZERS UNDER THE CONTROL OF A MICROCOMPUTER. THE COMPUTER ALLOWED SETS OF SYNTHESIZER PARAMETER VALUES TO BE CHOSEN AND PATTERNS OF THESE VALUES WHICH VARIED IN TIME TO BE CREATED AND STORED FOR EACH SYNTHESIZER.
AS I WORK WITHIN THE SPACE ITSELF, THE PROBLEM OF HEARING WHAT I AM DOING HAS ANOTHER DIMENSION. IT BECOMES HEARING WHAT I AM DOING, WHERE I AM DOING IT, HENCE I HAVE A NEED FOR A SYSTEM WHICH I CAN OPERATE BY REMOTE CONTROL. SOMETHING WHICH ALLOWS ME TO MAKE SOUNDS AND STRUCTURES -- CHANGING AND COMPARING THEM FROM ANY POINT IN THE INSTALLATION SITE. IN THIS PRELIMINARY VERSION OF THE SYSTEM I USED A LONG CABLE CONNECTED TO A BATTERY OPERATED TV MONITOR AND A LIGHT PEN.
AT THE PRESENT TIME,(1986) THE ARRAY I AM USING IS A NETWORK OF SOUND SYNTHESIS COMPUTERS. IT EXTENDS THE ORIGINAL CONCEPT BY MAKING EACH SOURCE AN INDEPENDENT COMPUTER WITH UP TO 100 SIMULTANEOUS TASKS. RATHER THAN A CENTRAL COMPUTER CONTROLLING INDIVIDUAL SYNTHESIZERS THE CENTRAL COMPUTER IS USED TO PROGRAM THE INDIVIDUAL COMPUTERS, WHICH CONTROL THE SYNTHESIZERS. THE REMOTE CONTROL UNIT IS NOW WIRELESS AND HAS A RANGE OF A HALF MILE FOR LARGE SCALE INSTALLATIONS.
FOR THE WORK IN THE BELL GALLERY I USED A SUBSET OF THE EARLY SYSTEM. AFTER FIXING THE CORNERS OF THE SPACE AS SOURCES OF SOUND I SPENT A DAY EXPLORING THEIR CHARACTER AND THE CHARACTER OF THE ROOM ITSELF WITH DIFFERENT KINDS OF SOUND. MOVING AROUND THE SPACE, MAKING SOUNDS AND LISTENING FROM VARIOUS POINTS. BUILDING UP A LIBRARY OF SOUNDS AND GETTING A FEELING FOR HOW THEY WORKED IN THE SPACE. THE FOLLOWING MORNING I DECIDED TO USE A SERIES OF SHORT CLICKS -- QUASI PITCHED SOUNDS LIKE FINGER SNAPPING WHICH I COULD VARY IN TONE COLOR.
MANY OF MY SOUND INSTALLATIONS ARE STABLE AURAL TOPOGRAPHIES WHICH LISTENERS EXPLORE AND INTERPRET INDIVIDUALLY BY MOVING THROUGH THEM. OTHERS ARE MADE WITH MOVING SOUND IMAGES. THE FIRST OF THESE WAS WALKTHROUGH (1973) WHICH WAS ALSO THE FIRST UNMARKED WORK IN A PUBLIC PLACE. (ILLUSTRATION 4) THE MOVING IMAGE WAS ONE WAY OF PROVIDING AN "ENTRANCE" TO THE WORK. THE INITIAL LISTENER IMPRESSION OF A MOVING SOUND IMAGE IS THAT SOMETHING IS IN FACT MOVING NEAR BY. WHILE SEEKING VISUAL CONFORMATION HE BEGINS TO LISTEN. PAGE 5
IN WALKTHROUGH THE SOUND MOVEMENT WAS CONTROLLED BY WEATHER CONDITIONS, AN IDEA I WAS WORKING WITH AT THE TIME OF CONNECTING THE WORK TO ITS ENVIRONMENT SO THAT IT BECAME AN EVOLVING PROCESS. A CASUAL WAY OF SUBTLY CHANGING IT SO THAT IT WAS NEVER THE SAME. I ABANDONED THIS WAY OF WORKING WHEN I FOUND THAT IT WAS PREVENTING PEOPLE FROM FINDING THE WORK -- MANY THOUGHT OF THE WORK AS SOME KIND OF NEW WEATHER GIMMICK.
AT BROWN I WAS INTERESTED IN CREATING A STRONG SOUND IMAGE WHICH WOULD SEEM TO MOVE AROUND THE SPACE SORT OF LIKE AURAL LIGHTNING FLASHES, BUT VERY SUBTLE AND SOFT -- JUST BARELY PERCEPTIBLE.
I DECIDED TO MAKE A FIVE CLICK PHRASE AND MOVE IT THROUGH OVERLAPPING CHANNELS. THE CLICK PHRASE WAS A LITTLE LESS THAN A SECOND LONG AND CONSISTED OF FIVE FAST PULSES FOLLOWED BY AN EQUAL PERIOD OF SILENCE. EACH PHRASE WAS COMPOSED OF LINKED PULSE PAIRS. THE FIRST CLICK OF A PHRASE APPEARED IN ONE CHANNEL SHAPE. THE SECOND CLICK WAS ACTUALLY COMPOSED OF TWO SIMULTANEOUS CLICKS -- A CLICK FROM THE NEW CHANNEL SHAPE ALONG WITH THE REPETITION OF THE FIRST CHANNEL. THE THIRD CLICK WAS A THIRD CHANNEL SHAPE AND A REPEAT OF THE SECOND CHANNEL, AND SO FORTH. (ILLUSTRATION 5)
THIS STRUCTURE LINKED THE PERCEPTION OF THE PULSES INTO A PHRASE WHICH SEEMED TO PIVOT AS IT MOVED AROUND THE ROOM. -- EACH NEW PHRASE WITH A DIFFERENT PATHWAY. INDEPENDENT OF THE EVOLUTION OF THESE CLICK PHRASE PATHWAYS WAS A SECOND EVOLUTION OF CLICK TIMBRE -- THE TONE COLOR OF THE CLICK CHANGED FROM LIGHT TO DARK AND BACK AGAIN AT AN INDEPENDENT SPEED IN EACH CHANNEL.
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SOUND INSTALLATIONS OF MINE USE SOUND TO ACTUALIZE IMAGINARY PLACES -- PLACES TO EXPLORE AURALLY OR SIMPLY TO BE IN. THE SOUND IS NOT THE WORK, THE PLACE IS -- THE SOUND IS ONLY THE CATALYST WHICH CREATES THE SENSE OF PLACE.
THE LISTENER ENTERING THE BELL GALLERY WAS CONFRONTED WITH AN EMPTY SPACE -- HE BEGAN TO FIND HIS PLACE WHEN HE NOTICED THE SOUND.
MAX NEUHAUS NOVEMBER 1986