Média Médiums

Working as a percussionist, notably for John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen, Max Neuhaus turned his attention, starting in 1966, to creating objects, walks, installations and sound exchange platforms. If his small electronic object Max-Feed (1966) is still involved with mechanically jamming radio-frequencies, Neuhaus soon turned to the exchange potential inherent in the medium of radio. From then on he produced projects for and with local and national radio stations, such as Public Supply (1966-1973) and Radio Net (1977), by linking their networks to telephone lines. These acoustical experiments which are both anonymous and collective, belong to Neuhaus' interest in the social dimension of both the radio and telephone. By bringing these two media together, Neuhaus worked hard to give "the impulse and the means to create an international sound exchange – a forum for verbal and acoustic exchange at a global level, a worldwide community of listeners"*. This lecture will explore this constellation of ideas.