2008
In the 2008 exhibition and accompanying catalogue, The Art of Participation: 1950 to Now, curated by Rudolf Frieling at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), Max Neuhaus is featured as a foundational figure in the history of participatory and networked art.
Rudolf Frieling's essay positions Neuhaus within a lineage of artists who moved beyond the static art object toward systems of interaction.
Neuhaus is framed as a pioneer of media art who anticipated contemporary internet-based collaboration by using the telephone network as a massive, social "instrument".
The exhibition connects Neuhaus's participatory radio works to his later site-specific installations, emphasizing how his work requires the physical or active presence of a participant to be fully realised.