Proposal for the park on the Novartis Campus- Switzerland
Unrealized Proposal
Image: Max Neuhaus Drawing
In our daily lives, our eye and ear are constantly working together as a closely linked team to form our perception of the world. Traditionally practitioners in the plastic arts have adjusted this perception through vision, forming with shape and color. I on the other hand work with our sense of hearing.
M.N.
In the area of the lake (as Peter Walker has suggested) I would like to propose three free standing sound fields. Each of these works is an invisible block of sound. Listeners entering them are enveloped in a quiet sound texture. When they leave, the sound disappears. The listening zones are square, five meters on a side. On one axis the sound stops abruptly, on the other it gradually fades away (see drawings).
I suggest two possible configurations. In the first, the works are placed in such a way that their faded ends intersect walkways a different points providing a reminder of their existence and attracting visitors to the work’s listening centers. In the second, the works are placed end to end, so to speak. Here the work’s fading sides blend together forming gradual gradations between each other.
Max Neuhaus, June 2004