Max Neuhaus at Dia: Times Square

A pioneer in the field of contemporary art and music, Max Neuhaus is credited with being the first to use sound as a medium for site-specific installations. His sound installations allow listeners to approach sound as art, in their own time.

Neuhaus’s Times Square (1977) sits beneath a triangular pedestrian plaza on Broadway between 45th and 46th Streets in New York. A pedestrian walking through this heavily trafficked area can hear, emanating from below a grate in the street, a deep and slightly pulsating droning that changes in pitch, timbre, and tone with shifts in bodily position. Originally installed at this site from 1977 to 1992, the Times Square Street Business Improvement District (BID), and Christine Burgin collaborated with MTA Arts for Transit and Dia Art Foundation to reinstate the project in May of 2002.

Dia is pleased to share this film highlighting Times Square and the work of Max Neuhaus in celebration of our 50th anniversary.

Support provided by Bloomberg Philanthropies

Video: SandenWolff
Interviews: Noah Therrien and Jonathan Sanden
Story editing: Rachel Wolff
Filming: Jonathan Sanden and Noah Therrien
Video editing: Stephen Parnigoni

Dia Art Foundation staff
Producers: Katherine Ellis and Dan Wolfe
Rights and reproduction: Jenn Kane
Communications director: Hannah Gompertz
Copy editor: Karen Rasaby
Proofreader: Svetlana Kitto

Special thanks to Silvia Cecere Neuhaus, Claudia Scotto Pagliara, and Max Neuhaus Estate

Additional thanks to Sandra Bloodworth, Cheryl Hageman, and MTA Arts & Design

© 2024 Dia Art Foundation

All works and images © 2024 Max Neuhaus Estate, unless otherwise noted