1980
TIME PIECE - SILENT ALLARM CLOCK by Max Neuhaus, 1980
The first work in the series of Time Pieces.
1980
Image: Silent Alarm Clock, 1980 © Copyright The Estate of Max Neuhaus
Photo published in: Max Neuhaus: Times Square, Time Piece Beacon. Eds. Lynne Cooke and Karen Kelley, with Barbara Schröder. New York: Dia Art Foundation, 2009
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Max Neuhaus's Moment Work commemorates an unusual product that never went into production: a silent alarm clock he designed in 1979. Neuhaus described it as "five by sixteen by one inch, with a time display, buttons on the left side of the longer face, and a round face on the right, behind which a small speaker was concealed." Before the set alarm time, the alarm clock emitted a continuous, low-pitched tone, carefully tuned to the maximum volume audible during sleep without waking the sleeper. Neuhaus explained that this frequency had "a very special quality. It is present, but almost inaudible—more presence than noise." Starting at an almost inaudible volume, the tone gradually increased until it abruptly ceased at the set alarm time. The sudden silence, the absence of auditory stimuli, awoke the sleeper.
MNE-PRESS Silent Alarm Clock, 1980.pdf
MNE-TEXTS Silent Alarm Clock, 1980.pdf
Time Piece: Silent Allarm Clock © The Estate of Max Neuhaus
Collection Musée d'Art, Toulon.
Photo Courtesy Marian Goodman Gallery
Photo: published in:
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MNE-DOC Silent Alarm Clock. Miriam Goodman. 1980.pdf