A Transcendental MomentPhenomenological Qualities in the Time Pieces of Max Neuhaus

Clint Rule

ARTH 701

Neuhaus as Musician

Relatively well-known percussionist

Toured Europe as a soloist

Recorded a few albums

‘Retired’ at age 28

Neuhaus as Artist

• Post-minimalism

• ‘Sound installation’

• Public

• Sculptor vs. Musician vs. Architect vs. Composer

The Time Pieces

Phenomenology

Phenomenology’s Challenge

• “In the Cartesian, Hobbesian, and Lockean traditions…, we are told that when we are conscious, we are primarily aware of ourselves or our own ideas. Consciousness is taken to be like a bubble or an enclosed cabinet; the mind comes in a box. Impressions and concepts occur in this enclosed space, in this circle of ideas and experiences, and our awareness is directed toward them, not directly toward the things ‘outside’…[W]e are caught in what has been called an ‘egocentric predicament’; all we can really be sure of at the start is our own conscious existence and the states of that consciousness.”– Robert Sokolowski, Introduction to Phenomenology (New York: Cambridge University

Press, 2000), 9.

Phenomenology’s Challenge

• “The core doctrine in phenomenology is the teaching that every act of consciousness we perform, every experience that we have, is intentional: it is essentially ‘consciousness of’ or an ‘experience of’ something or other. All our awareness is directed toward objects… Every act of consciousness, every experience, is correlated with an object. Every intending has its intended object.”– Robert Sokolowski, Introduction to Phenomenology (New York: Cambridge University

Press, 2000), 8.

Intentionality

• Sound as the personification of intentionality

Public Ego

• Phenom. Asserts that our actions do not take place in a void

• The communal qualities of the time pieces

Conservative View of Abstraction

• Language allows for abstraction– “We can speak about pitch without mentioning sound;

we can refer to hue without mentioning color; we can talk about vision without mentioning the eye.”

• Robert Sokolowski, Introduction to Phenomenology (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 24.

• Inherent danger / temptation

Abstraction / Extraction

• “People are always wanting to record these sounds, because we are so used to making a product out of sound. To record a sound like this and think of it as a reproduction of the artwork is as silly as scraping all the paint off of a painting, putting it in a box, and saying, ‘here’s the painting’.”– Time Piece Stommeln, directed by Werner Hannappel, 2007.

Attitudes

• Natural attitude– Default

• Phenomenological Attitude– Philosophical / reflective

Phenomenological Shift

• “I see these works not as definers of a single frame of mind for all individuals, but as catalysts for shifts in frames of mind.” Lynn Cooke, "Introduction," – Max Neuhaus: Times Square, Time Piece Beacon, 23-27 (New York: Yale University

Press, 2009), 23.

• Scenario

Natural Attitude

• “One of the dangers to philosophy is that it may think that it can replace the prephilosophical life…The most important contribution phenomenology has made to culture and the intellectual life is to have validated the truth of prephilosophical life, experience, and thinking. There must be true opinion, there must be prior doxa[default acceptance of self-evident truths], if there is to be philosophy. Classical Greek and medieval thought understood that prephilosophical reason achieves truth and evidence, and that philosophical reflection comes afterward and does not disturb what goes before it…Phenomenology joins this classical understanding…”– Robert Sokolowski, Introduction to Phenomenology (New York: Cambridge University

Press, 2000), 63-64.

Natural Attitude

• “The piece isn’t meant to startle…In fact, I never do a work where everybody stops and notices it in a public space. I want about fifty percent of the people who walk through it to not notice it.”– Max Neuhaus - Times Square, directed by Rory Logsdail, 2002.

Conclusion