Sound Work Location: Botanical Garden, St. Paul, Minnesota, Dimensions: rotunda 30 x 20 meters
Image: Max Neuhaus poster, 1980
Sound Work opens June 5, 1980. Organized by WAC and commissioned by the city of St. Paul, a permanent sound installation will be opened prior to New Music America in the Como Park Conservatory.
Swift-moving Sound Shapes By Max Neuhaus Text 1980
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'His most recent installations have made use of electronically synthesized sounds, for which he has developed an elegant computerized system for manipulating and storing tone patterns. The system he is using for the siren project is modified from one created in 1980 for a St. Paul (Minnesota) Botanical Garden installation, and includes a video monitor on which the sounds can literally be drawn with an electric marker'.
MNE-PRESS Como Park Conservatory.pdf
New Music America, 1980.
PERFORMING ARTS: NEW MUSIC AMERICA
MAX NEUHAUS: INTERVIEW , SOUND INSTALLATION,
06/80,TAPE #1 1980 Copyright
Image: Max Neuhaus, Drawing, 1993
MNE-DRAW (Untitled) Como Park, St. Paul 1980 .pdf
Designed for the space by artist Max Neuhaus, the installation was placed in the central rotunda of the Conservatory. The piece, which involved an elaborate system of electronic music, virtually filled the space with gradually modulating "sound shapes" - tactile music that surrounded the listener in subtle tones.
The installation marked Neuhaus' first exploration of a greenhouse space. The piece was a permanent addition to the Conservatory. Since 1965, Neuhaus, a leading artist of the sonic environment, has worked outside the realm of conventional concert hall situations, focusing his attention on new sonic situations and sources. In the process of largely creating and developing the "sound installation" concept, Neuhaus changed many preconceived notions about when and where music can occur.