Sound Work Location: Old US Customs House Rotunda, New York City, Dimensions: elliptical rotunda, 20 x 60 x 15 meters.
Image: Photo from Max Neuhaus Archive
Round, sponsored by Creative Time, Inc., was installed in a large, oval area in the ornate rotunda of the U.S. Custom House. An oval ring of 16 face-up loudspeakers was placed on the carpeted floor, with a smaller ring of 16 more loudspeakers inside it. When I arrived on Sunday afternoon, listeners were sitting and lying casually around the area; and I decided to sit down between a couple of loudspeakers in the outer ring. It was immediately apparent that sustained electronic sounds were moving around the space; and I soon realized that whatever faded in on the loudspeaker at my right would pass on to the loudspeaker on my left a beat later, and from there to the other 14 speakers of the outer circle. Every eight beats a new sonority would pass by me, and the music just kept rotating.
Complete text: John Rockwell
Max Neuhaus Postcard 1976, (front)
