Walking through Times Square on my first trip to New York City, I noticed some strangely musical sounds coming from under the grate in the sidewalk. What might seem like subway noise or a mechanical hum to the average passerby is actually a sound installation that’s been playing almost constantly since 1977. It’s kind of like an oasis of peaceful ambient tone in a desert of commercial noise. Here’s my quick video tour.
Max Neuhaus (1939-2009), installed this sound art under the road as a kind of covert project. There’s no indication anywhere in Times Square that this was a planned installation, so he remains anonymous to everyone except the most curious of audio nerds. Max said that he wanted his sound installations to go unnoticed by at least 50% of people walking by. From my short observation, I think he succeeded; I didn’t see a single person stop to figure out where these strange sounds were coming from.
If you want to learn more about Max’s installation and peer down under the grate, here’s a 7 min video documentary from the Max Neuhaus site.
Captain, sensors indicate a strange drone coming from beneath the planet’s surface. It seems that someone or something has been using this signal for decades as some kind of distress signal. I suggest we assemble an away team to investigate the origin.