1966
Image: Max Neuhaus, Poster Public Supply I, Oct. 8th 1966© Copyright The Estate of Max Neuhaus
Work Dimensions: 20 miles in diameter Extant: October 8, 1966 8:30 - 10:00 PM
Radio Station WBAI in New York, text by Max Neuhaus 1966
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'I consider the Public Supplys and the other Networks as direct extensions of my activities in music.'
Max Neuhaus
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Public Supply I was the first in a series of “broadcast” works which uses radio as an infrastructure, followed by Public Supply II – IV, from 1968 – 1973, culminating in his work Radio Net in 1977, which linked together 190 radio stations across the United States.
Public Supply combined a radio station with the telephone network to create what we now call a virtual space.
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Max Neuhaus transitioned from performance to installation through the medium of radio. For the first realization of Public Supply in 1966, he invited his audience to call a New York phone number during a 90-minute broadcast on WBAI and play any sounds or recordings they wished. Neuhaus processed and mixed the up to ten simultaneously received signals live and broadcast his mix with a delay of a few seconds, allowing listeners to relay the radio signal back to the studio by telephone without creating a whistling feedback loop.
Excerpt from: https://www.straebel.com/files/Straebel%202008_Klanginstallation.pdf
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Radio and telephone both may seem like rather primitive technologies in this digital age at the end of the twentieth century, but in fact they are still the most widely used forms of live communication technologies we have and will remain so for a long time to come. He has continued his activities in music with his broadcast works: virtual architectures which act as a forums open to anyone for the evolution of new musics. With the first Public Supply in 1966 he combined a radio station with the telephone network and created a two-way public aural space twenty miles in diameter encompassing New York City where any inhabitant could join a live dialogue with sound by making a phone call. Later with Radio Net he formed a nationwide network with 190 radio stations. The current project, Audium, proposes a 24-hour global entity for live interaction with sound.
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Image: Sound Paths, Radio Net, 1977 Paint on cibachrome print 60 x 120 cm Collection: The Estate of Max Neuhaus
Sound work references: Radio Net, 1977, National Public Radio Network, USA
PUBLIC SUPPLY I By Max Neuhaus Oct 16, 1997
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Some of Neuhaus' earliest drawings, these working drawings were used in the realization of his nationwide Network, 'Radio Net' in 1977
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Max Neuhaus Drawing
WBAI New York - Broadcast Work, 1982 - Ink and colored pencil on paper - 68 x 117 cm
Sound work references: Public Supply II, 1966
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The drawing describes the first work in 1966. It represents the aural space which was formed by a radio broadcast covering one thousand two hundred square miles of the New York Metropolitan area, and its telephone network. The work was initiated by advertising a phone number and a broadcast time. It was also necessary to explain that their calls would be put on the air, as this was well before the time when the format of a radio phone-in program was practiced.
People entered the space through a game of chance. There were many more callers than incoming lines. A caller was able to enter if his call coincided with the exit of another person (callers were limited to a maximum of three minutes each.) I listened to each person and joined them into broadcast groups which were then put on the air together. While they were on the air I acted as a balancer or moderator of the group by adjusting the way their sounds were mixed together. I re- proportioned them according to what each person was doing, as a way of developing activity within the group -- a way of getting them to listen to what they were doing and what others in the group were doing.
Max Neuhaus
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