1973
Free Music Store Church. 359 E. 62 Street. NYC.
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The Networks propose the self-evolution of new musics. Their premise is a form of
music making which remains now only in societies untouched by modern man.
Rather than something to be listened to, music in these cultures is an activity open to the public at large -- a dialogue with sound rather than a performance. I believe this to be the original impulse for music in mankind.
Public Supply (1966) combined a radio station with the telephone network to create what we now call a virtual space -- a public two-way aural space twenty miles in diameter encompassing New York City. Any inhabitant could enter the live sound dialogue by making a telephone call.
Max Neuhaus
WORKS:
PUBLIC SUPPLY II by Max Neuhaus, station radio CJRT-FM, Toronto, Ontario, March 17, 1968
TELEPHONE ACCESS by Max Neuhaus, New York September 14 - October 14, 1968
PUBLIC SUPPLY III, by Max Neuhaus. WFMT-FM Chicago, December 31-January 1, 1973
RADIO NET by Max Neuhaus, 1977
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Max Neuhaus Drawing Public Supply
WFMT Chicago - Broadcast Work, 1982 - Ink and colored pencil on paper - 68 x 117 cm
Sound work references: Public Supply III, 1973
Drawings in exhibition: Alfonso Artiaco gallery exhibition dedicated to Max Neuhaus, inaugurated on Friday 16 January 2015,
Photo: Courtesy Galleria Alfonso Artiaco
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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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Public Supply
Max neuhaus Drawing, Voice, 2003 - Pencil on paper - 31 x22 cm
Collection Max Neuhaus Estate
Sound work references: Networks
Voice - a drawing using two curved lines to represent the human voice. In 2004 it was integrated into 'Auracle', Neuhaus' interactive sound work for the internet. (http://www.auracle.org/)
